BANGKOK, January 18, 2020
Attila Balazs is the champion of the Bangkok Open held at Rama Gardens Hotel Bangkok. The No. 2 seed of the $54,160 ATP Challenger hard-court event battled past unseeded Russian Aslan Karatsev 7-6(5), 0-6, 7-6(6) in Saturday’s singles final.
After a first-round bye, Balazs advanced to the title match with wins over Denis Yevseyev from Kazakhstan, US-American JC Aragone as well as Russians Evgeny Karlovskiy and Roman Safiullin. The World 128 from Hungary fired 10 aces in the final, winning 64 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in two hours and 49 minutes.
For Attila Balazs, it was well worth the wait.
More than NINE YEARS later, the 🇭🇺 earns his second #ATPChallenger title. Champion in Bangkok! pic.twitter.com/vEEIwY7umv
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) January 18, 2020
By lifting his second trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour following his maiden triumph in Palermo, Italy 2010, Balazs pocketed in Thailand $7,200 in prize money as well as 80 ATP Ranking points.
“When I won my last Challenger title it was 10 years ago. So I am very happy,” Balazs said after the final.
“I feel very tired at the moment. It was very hot during the week and I had some big matches. I was fighting as much as I could. Now I will have two days rest to recover and then I try to get ready for the next week. I am very close to the Top 100 now and I hope that I could break into it as soon as possible.”
Balazs will stay in Bangkok for another week competing in the second ATP Challenger event taking place in Thailand’s capital city.
Earlier in the day, Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov took the doubles title. The pair from Kazakhstan overcame Sanchai Ratiwatana from Thailand and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia 3-6, 7-6(1), 10-5. The encounter lasted one hour and 24 minutes.
