OBERENTFELDEN, February 13, 2016

All good things come in threes. At the request of Swiss Tennis the Tennisschule Aarau-West has been organizing, aside from two junior tournaments in February and July, a $25,000 ITF Men’s Future. The playing opportunities for young professional players in Switzerland are few and far between. Including this week’s inaugural Pro-Open Aarau, there are just four other Futures tournaments in Switzerland: three $10,000 and one $25,000 event, held in Trimbach next week.

Yet, there was no local player left in the draw when the final took place on Saturday, in which second seed Uladzimir Ignatik from Belarus defeated Jan Choinski 6-4, 6-3. The world number 242 clinched his fourth win over the German teenager in as many meetings between the two. Ignatik fired 13 aces and broke his opponent’s serve four times to celebrate his 15th ITF Pro Circuit title after one hour and 29 minutes of play.

Brian Bencic (photo: twitter)

Ignatik was also the man, who ended the most promising run of a Swiss, when he beat Yann Marti in the semi-final in straight sets. Another local maybe even called more attention, as 15-year-old Brian Bencic appeared in his very first professional tournament. The younger brother of world number 11 Belinda Bencic was granted a wild card for the qualifying but lost in the opening round 3-6, 3-6 to 11th seed Elie Rousset. The teenager is without any ATP ranking and currently plays on the Junior’s Circuit.  If he can follow in his sister’s footsteps, we will see in the future.