Aleksandar Kovacevic is the Cleveland Challenger champion after defeating China’s Yibing Wu in three sets (3-6, 7-5, 7-6(2)) in the final of the tournament. American tennis player’s first championship in the category.
tournament draw
tournament results
A great finale to this Challenger tournament in Cleveland. Aleksandar Kovacevic He had just had a great week as the fifth seed in the tournament, winning two of the top three in the tournament in the quarterfinals and semifinals, defeating Steve Johnson and Emilio Gómez. by your side, Yibing Wu he had only dropped one set in the entire tournament and managed to beat Tennys Sandgren and Stefan Kozlov en route to the final.
There was already a previous clash between them, Wu leading the record 1-0. This crossing happened at the 2022 Indianapolis Challenger final, where the Chinese won the title.
Kovacevic takes the title
The Chinese tennis player started the match in better spirits and got a quick break to take control of the scoreboard from the first games. After holding the advantage throughout the set, Kovacevic would have two chances to get the break back at 3-5, although he would not be able to capitalize on either. Wu ended the first set with a score of 6-3. The second set was much more even, and the service games moved very quickly, and the pressure fell on the shoulders of the American tennis player. At the time of definition Kovacevic got a key break to take the set 7-5.
The 24-year-old local himself fared better when planted in the final set, taking advantage of the way he managed to level the score and with that, he grabbed an early break for a 3-1 lead. Three breaks in a row made the determination more than unpredictable, as everything had to end in a tiebreak. In the draw, the American started better, which meant significant differences with his rival. In the end, Kovacevic sealed his victory with a 7-2 tiebreak.
