Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE tennis star, Benjamin Lock has been eliminated from the Leon Challenger singles tournament in Mexico after losing his quarter-final encounter on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old Lock lost his encounter 2-0 against Australia’s James Duckworth to crash out of the tournament.
He lost his two sets 6-3 and 6-4 which brought his good run in the North American country to an end.
In the first set of the game, the Zimbabwean international had three aces while his competitor, Duckworth had five. Lock won three out of nine games in the set while Duckworth had six out of nine.
In the second and final set, Lock was on the back foot again, with two aces while his challenger managed five once again.
He went on to win four out of 10 games while the Australian international won six out of 10 to progress to the next stage.
Lock booked his place in the quarter-finals of the championship after edging Denis Yevseyev from Kazakhstan 2-0 in their encounter played on Tuesday night on the hard court.
Lock, who represented Zimbabwe in their Davis Cup defeat by Uruguay in February in Harare, won the game with identical scores of 7-5 in the two sets played to progress to the quarter final.
His good run in Mexico began with a 2-1 win over Beibit Zhukayev from Kazakhstan on Monday when he came from behind to win. He lost the first set 6-3 before going on to win the next two, 7-6 and 6-4.
On that same day, the Zimbabwean ace went on to overcome Britain’s Aidan McHugh with a similar scoreline coming from behind once again.
He went down 6-4 in the first set before bouncing back to win 7-6 and 6-4 to progress to the next stage.
On Sunday, the Zimbabwean international was eliminated from the San Luis Potosi doubles in Mexico as well after a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Colin Sinclair from Northern Mariana Islands and Adam Walton from Australia.
Lock’s partner was Jose Rubin Statham from New Zealand.
After losing in the San Luis Potosi doubles, Lock suffered yet another doubles loss on Wednesday prior to his singles match.
Playing with Colin Sinclair from Northern Mariana Islands, the duo lost 2-0 against the pair of Maximilian Neuchrist from Austria and Michail Pervolarakis from Greece in the last eight as well.
Lock and his partner lost their two sets 7-6 and 6-3 in the first and second sets respectively. Both the singles and doubles events are part of the Challenger tours which are administered by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
The events are the second highest tier of tennis competition behind the ATP Tour.
Players who perform well on the ATP Challenger Tour earn sufficient ranking points to become eligible for main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP Tour tournaments. — @brandon_malvin
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