NUR-SULTAN, July 25, 2021
Andrey Kuznetsov has clinched his first title since 2015 by winning the $52,080 President’s Cup 2 held on hard court at the National Tennis Center in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The 30-year-old Russian benefited from the retirement of Jason Kubler in Sunday’s singles final.
Kuznetsov was leading 6-3, 2-0 when the Australian was forced to stop playing due to muscle tear.
The World No. 350, who reached a career-high ranking of 39 in April 2016, battled his way through the top half of the draw with wins over No. 3 seeded Briton Jay Clarke, local wild card entry Beibit Zhukayev, fifth favourite Peter Polansky of Canada and Russia’s Pavel Kotov.
By lifting his eighth Challenger trophy, his first since Como in early September 2015, Kuznetsov earned $7,200 in prize money as well as 80 ATP Ranking points.
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Yu Hsiou Hsu/Lock tack back to back titles
On Saturday, Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Benjamin Lock from Zimbabwe captured their second straight doubles title. The No. 4 seeds defeated Oleksii Krutykh from the Ukraine and Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4 in the final, which lasted 59 minutes.
Yu Hsiou Hsu and Lock split $3,100 in prize money and earned 80 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
Back to back @ATPChallenger titles 🏆🏆 An amazing two weeks in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿❤️ Let’s keep it rolling #Twiza pic.twitter.com/GggIuj7s0P
— Benjamin Lock (@Benjamm1ng) July 24, 2021
“This was my first Challenger Final and it will always be special to me,” Lomakin said.
“I want to thank my partner Alexey and congratulate our rivals on their second title. Many thanks to all organizers, linesmen, supervisor and staff. Many thanks to the sponsors and the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation for giving young Kazakhstan players the opportunity to participate in such big competitions.”
