Potchefstroom, South Africa, 17 February 2021 – South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse survived a second set scare to beat Vit Kopriva and Vaclav Safranek of Czech Republic on Wednesday to progress to the semifinals at the Potch Open, ATP Challenger 80 tournament, at the North-West University in Potchefstroom.
Klaasen and Roelofse prevailed 7-6(6), 4-6, 10-4 in a match that took an hour and 27 minutes on centre court.
However, the South African pair had to dig deep to win. They won the opening set in a tie-break but were down in the second set before coming through in the deciding match tie-break.
Klaasen and Roelofse will face off against third seeds Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia and Mark Vervoort from the Netherlands in the semifinal round.
In other matches, South African wildcards – Kholo Montsi and his doubles partner Robbie Arends, as well as Vaughn Hunter and his partner Vasilios Caripi were handed free passes into the doubles second round after their opponents withdrew and retired, respectively.
In the singles event, Austrian qualifier Lucas Miedler Denis rallied to upset Swiss third seed Marc-Andrea Huesler 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to book his place in the round of 16.
Miedler will face Dimitar Kuzmanov of Australia for a place in the quarterfinals. The Bulgarian fought past unseeded Frenchman Tristan Lamasine 7-5, 7-6(5) to secure his place in the next round.
In the women’s event, South African wildcard Isabella Kruger defeated eight seeded Victoria Kan of Russia to advance to the second round of the Ilana Kloss International, ITF $25,000 World Tour event.
Kruger’s first-round match with Kan was suspended because of darkness on Tuesday before the South African 15-year-old prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 on Wednesday to advance to the second round.
Kruger will next face Carol Zhao of Canada for a place in the quarterfinal round.
Isabella’s sister, Zoe, came up short in her opener against Brazilian Beatriz Maia, falling 6-2, 6-4.
Dutch top seed Lesley Kerkhove also booked her place in the second round after a straight set 6-3, 7-5 victory over Alice Rame of France to set up a clash with Sandra Samir of Egypt.
