Kukushkin, Gasquet to battle for title

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan and Richard Gasquet of France set up yesterday an exciting final clash for the singles title in the Bahrain Ministry of Interior Tennis Challenger 2024, part of the ATP Challenger Tour.

Kukushkin, ranked 231st in the world, upset Czech fourth seed Jakub Mensik 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the championship-decider; while fifth-seeded Gasquet, 130th globally, overcame seventh seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-3, 7-6 (4) to book his place.

The final is scheduled for this evening at the Public Security Officers Club courts in Gudaibiya. It is slated to start no earlier than 6pm.

Also today, the tournament’s doubles crown will be claimed, with second seeds Sergio Martos Gornes of Spain and Petros Tsitsipas of Greece going up against fourth seeds Vasil Kirkov of the US and Patrik Niklas-Salminen of Finland.

Martos Gornes and Tsitsipas secured their spot in the final after defeating the Italian tandem of Marco Bortolotti and Alessandro Giannessi 6-4, 6-1 in their last-four clash yesterday.

Kirkov and Niklas-Salminen, on the other hand, needed to go to a super tiebreak after battling back from an early deficit to take down number one seeds Luke Johnson of the US and Skander Mansouri of Tunisia 3-6, 6-1, 11-9.

The doubles final is scheduled for a 2.30pm start today on the competition’s concluding day. All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting action of the ATP Challenger Tour.

Frustrations In Kukushkin’s victory yesterday, the tournament alternate took advantage of Mensik’s visible frustrations to go ahead 5-1 in the second set and was serving for the match.

But Mensik, ranked 139th in the world, broke Kukushkin’s serve to extend the proceedings, until the victor finally closed things out the following game.

“It was a very strange second set, I made a lot of mistakes, and a big fault from my side to lose my serve with the score 5-1 was pretty disappointing,” Kukushkin told TDT after sealing his win.

“I was trying to push myself the next game and to break immediately because the match was going my side. I was quite confident, but in professional tennis, you never know what is going to happen, but I did my best to close the match.”

Looking ahead to the final, Kukushkin is looking to ride his fine form to victory and claim his second career ATP singles title.