On Friday, after five days of action, Adil Shamasdin (Toronto, ON) was the lone Canadian player standing at the Drummondville National Bank Challenger. The tournament, which offers $54,160 in total prize money, will be played from March 11-17 at the René-Verrier indoor tennis club in Drummondville.
Adil Shamasdin was in doubles action on Friday, looking to book his spot in the semi-finals. He was playing alongside Scott Clayton of Great Britain for the sixth tournament since the start of the year and the duo actually won a title together just a few weeks ago at a Challenger event in France. The tournament’s third seeds in doubles, they notched a comfortable victory over the French team of Evan Furness and Manuel Guinard by a score of 6-4, 6-3. This is Shamasdin’s fourth appearance in Drummondville, he who won the doubles title back in 2017.
Although it had been a rather calm start to the week, there were a few upsets on Friday, as the tournament’s third and fifth seeds were ousted in the quarter-finals. Matteo Viola of Italy got the better of the no. 5 seed Arthur de Greef 6-3, 7-5 while Michael Redlicki of the United States got one of the biggest wins of his career when he defeated Jurgen Zopp of Estonia (no. 3). The American, who finished runner-up at the Sherbrooke Futures last year, defeated a player ranked almost 200 spots higher than him.
Photo : Jean-Samuel Gauthier
The only top seed to book a spot in the semi-finals was Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania (No. 1) who got the better of Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark by a score of 7-6(3), 6-4. It was a tightly disputed match, as both players put on a good show in front of a packed crowd.
Action begins on Saturday at noon, as Redlicki and Maden will face-off in the first semi-final match and will be followed by Berankis and Viola. The second double semi-final will be the last match of the day, as Shamasdin and Clayton will take on Dennis Novikov and Ante Pavic for a spot in the final.
The Drummondville National Bank Challenger is part of the group of tournaments sponsored by National Bank, a group that includes combined events in Granby and Gatineau as well as a men’s Challenger in Calgary and two women’s Challengers in Saguenay and Winnipeg.
*Feature photo : Sarah-Jäde Champagne
