Aptos (Hard)

Two-times NCAA Singles Champion Steve Johnson took his first title on the professional circuit with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Robert Farah. Johnson dropped his serve just once in the final breaking Farah four times overall. On his route to the trophy, wildcard Johnson did not lose a set and only once did an opponent get to five games in a set. South African Rik De Voest and Australian John Peers came from a set down to win the Doubles, defeating second seeds Frank Moser and Chris Guccione 6-7 6-1 10-4. This was Peers’ fifth doubles title of the year, but his first with De Voest.

Pozoblanco (Hard)

Roberto Bautista-Agut defeated fellow Spaniard Arnau Brugues-Davi in fairly straight forward fashion to earn his third title of the year on the Challenger circuit and second in three weeks.  Bautista-Agut was broken just once by Davi in a 6-3 6-4 to add Pozoblanco to his Rome and Portobello titles. The Russian/Ukranian pairing of Konstantin Kravchuk and Denys Molchanov took their third title as a pairing (Astana 2011, 2012) with an easy 6-3 6-3 win over the French duo of Adrian Mannarino and Maxime Teixeira.

Samarkand (Clay)

After losing last time out in the Portobello final Dusan Lajovic went one better in Uzbekistan as he took the title, defeating home hopeful Farrukh Dustov 6-2 6-3. Lajovic was dominant on serve throughout, dropping just 13 points and never having his serve broken. Meanwhile, there was a shock in the doubles as the unseeded Ukranian pairing of Oleksandr Nedoyvyesov and Ivan Sergeyev defeated the top seeds Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan 6-4 7-6(1).

San Marino (Clay)

In what was an overall dominant tournament for the top seed, Martin Klizan took the title without dropping a set. He broke the serve of Italy’s Simone Bolelli five times on his way to a 6-3 6-1 victory. This was Klizan’s fourth challenger title of the year surely signals that he should make the step up to the main tour, given the ease of his victory here. Lukas Dlouhy and Michal Mertinak added another doubles title to their long list of successes, but this was only their second as a team. The Czech/Slovak team edged out Matteo Viola and Stefano Ianni in a tight 2-6 7-6(3) 11-9 victory.

Sibiu (Clay)

In an all-Romanian final between the top two seeds, it was Adrian Ungur who came out on top. Ungur, the top seed, did not drop a set throughout the whole tournament and broke early on and was always in control of the first set. Ungur wasn’t so comfortable in the second and had to come from a break down to earn a straight sets victory over Victor Hanescu 6-4 7-6(1). There was no Romanian success in the doubles as Alexandru-Daniel Carpen and his Chilean teammate Cristobal Saavedra Corvalan lost in a tight three setter to the Croatians Marin Draganja and Lovro Zovko. The second seeds won in a final set tiebreak for a 6-4 4-6 11-9 victory.

ITF Mens Pro Circuit

Latvia F1 Futures Arthur DE GREEF (BEL) [2]     6-3 1-0 Retired    Andis JUSKA (LAT) [1]

Russia F11 Futures Boy WESTERHOF (NED) [1]     6-4 6-4     Nikoloz BASILASHVILI (RUS) [4]

Brazil F20 Futures Jose PEREIRA (BRA) [4]     6-3 6-7(4) 6-3     Nicolas SANTOS (BRA)

Argentina F19 Futures Leandro MIGANI (ARG) [3]     6-4 6-4     Juan-Pablo AMADO (ARG) [4]

Serbia F8 Futures Ivan BJELICA (SRB) [2]     2-6 7-5 6-2     Dino MARCAN (CRO) [1]

Great Britain F13 Futures Daniel EVANS (GBR) [3]     6-2 7-5     Daniel COX (GBR)

Germany F13 Futures Steven MONEKE (GER) [3]     6-2 6-2     Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS) [5]

Slovakia F2 Futures Jan STANCIK (SVK)     6-2 6-4     Jan BLECHA (CZE)

Finland F1 Futures Vladimir IVANOV (EST) [2]     6-4 6-2     Milos SEKULIC (SWE)

Belgium F7 Futures Jonathan EYSSERIC (FRA) [3]     6-4 6-3     Julien CAGNINA (BEL)

Turkey F31 Futures Alberto BRIZZI (ITA) [2]     6-2 6-1     Claudio FORTUNA (ITA)

Austria F5 Futures Jiri VESELY (CZE) [2]     6-2 6-2     Marc RATH (AUT) [3]

USA F23 Futures Ante PAVIC (CRO) [2]     7-6(3) 7-5     Eric QUIGLEY (USA)

ITF Womens Pro Circuit

50k Bronx Romina OPRANDI (SUI) [1]     5-7 6-3 6-3     Anna CHAKVETADZE (RUS)

25k Hechingen Masa ZEC-PESKIRIC (SLO)     6-0 6-4     Mervana JUGIC-SALKIC (BIH) [7]

25k Monteroni D’Arbia Estelle GUISARD (FRA)     6-3 6-1     Anne SCHAEFER (GER)

25k Koksijde Annika BECK (GER) [1]     6-1 6-1     Bibiane SCHOOFS (NED) [2]

10k Pirot Teodora MIRCIC (SRB) [1]     6-3 6-1     Lina GJORCHESKA (MKD)

10k Piestany Katerina VANKOVA (CZE) [5]     3-6 6-3 6-2     Katerina KRAMPEROVA (CZE) [1]

10k Bursa Victoria KAN (RUS) [5]     7-6(4) 6-4     Laura-Ioana ANDREI (ROU) [3]

10k Arequipa Aranza SALUT (ARG) [7]     7-6(4) 4-6 6-1     Luciana SARMENTI (ARG)

I expect Lajovic to prevail on this contest with some comfort. The Serbian player is having a breakthrough season and he confirmed that in the first round with a good win over Donskoy. He has been quite impressive in the challenger level as of late and he will be facing someone who has been struggling for a while.

Even with a first round win over Harrison, the truth is that Souza had lost the previous 7 matches that he had played, with six of them being on clay. I don’t believe Souza has recovered his form so suddenly, as I believe Harrison played a very poor match, on his first match back in Europe, after having played in Houston. The Brazilian doesn’t have a lot of weapons and I expect the more talented and better in-form Lajovic to be able to get a good win at home today. Therefore, I’m taking the Serbian to win this contest.

Pick: 3 units on Dusan Lajovic ML @1,800 on Pinnacle