DARIAN KING’S run of good form continued at the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) F10 Tournament in Mexico where he reached the men’s doubles finals and the semi-finals of the singles earlier this week.
In the singles, King, the No. 5 seed, defeated qualifier Aldo Arteaga, of Mexico 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the first round, while Australia’s Yuri Bezerus was the next to fall with a straight sets 6-4, 6-3 win.
In the quarter-finals, King faced what should have been his toughest challenge against his doubles partner, No. 3 seed Christopher Diaz-Figueroa, of Guatemala. He coasted to a 6-3, 6-2 victory to set up a semi-final battle against No. 1 Adam El Mihdawy, of the United States.
King last week won the F9 Tournament in which El Mihdawy, who was also the No. 1 seed, was surprisingly knocked out in the first round.
El Mihdawy won the first set 7-5 and King fought back to win the second by the same score. However, trailing by three games in the third set, King retired (7-5, 5-7, 3-0) and El Mihdawy went on to win the title, defeating No. 2 seed Marcelo Arevalo, of Mexico, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In the doubles, King and Diaz-Figueroa were the third-ranked pair, but they had to fight from behind to knock out the Mexican pair of Luis Patino and Mauricio Astorga 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 10-8.
In the second round, the Brazilian duo of Alex Blumenberg and Talles Vilarinho retired, trailing 0-2 in the second set after losing the first set tiebreaker 7-6 (4).
King and Diaz-Figueroa met El Mihdawy and his partner Marvin Barker, of New Zealand, in the semi-finals and knocked out the No. 2 seeds 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.
But when they came up against No. 1 seeds Marcelo Arevalo, of El Salvador, and Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela, of Mexico, they quickly lost the first set 1-6 and one break of serve cost them the second (5-7). (SAT)
