Danai wins title; moves up in world ranking

Chikmagalur, Karnataka, Apr 23 (UNI) Danai Udomchoke of Thailand downed Japanese giant-killer Toshihide Matsui to win the singles title in the 25,000 dollar ATP Challenger Championship here today.

Second seed Udomchoke defeated unseeded Matsui 7-5, 6-4 in the finals that lasted for 77 minutes. This was the fifth time Udomchoke, ranked 114, won the ATP Challenger title.

Matsui, who in the earlier rounds had succeeded in giving the packing order to Indian tennis star Karan Rastogi, Davis cupper Rohan Bopanna and other top seeded players, failed to maintain his tempo in the finals.

Matsui, ranked 354, failed to take advantage of the mistakes committed by Udomchoke, especially when the game was at the finishing stage. Udomchoke committed double faults twice and conceded equaliser (1-1) and both succeeded in equalising the score upto the 10th game in the first set (5-5). However, Udomchoke prevailed and took the lead by earning a break point in the 11th game and finishing the set 7-5.

In the second set Matsui, playing under pressure after losing the first set, committed many mistake too many. Though he was quick enough to move to the nets, he failed to finish.

Later talking to reporters, a beaming Udomchoke said though Matsui's back hand shots were better, he was not very good at forehand and ''this encouraged me to bring him to the nets and force him to commit mistakes.'' He said he was under pressure as he realised that if he won the title, his dream of figuring in the top 100 world ranking list would become a reality. ''Hence I played very cautiously to earn full 50 points. This is my fifth Challenger win. The win now enables me to compete for Grand Slam and Wimbledon.'' While Udomchoke became richer by 3,600 dollars and earned 50 points by winning the title, finalist Matsui bagged 2,120 dollars and 35 points.

Udomchoke left for Dharwad to compete in the sixth ATP Challenger title. The Main Draw of the Challenger would begin there on April 25.

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