Benjamin Lock out of France tourney

ZIMBABWE international tennis ace, Benjamin Lock has been knocked out of the Aix en Provence Challenger in France after losing his singles qualifier on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old star failed to progress to the next stage of the clay course championship after losing the three-set match 2-1 against Robin Haase from Netherlands.

Winning the first set, 6-3, the Zimbabwean international went on to lose the following two sets with scores of 6-1 and 7-5 in the second and third sets respectively.

Lock went into the tour looking to redeem himself after suffering another early exit in last month’s Morelos Challenger in Mexico (singles).

Against Haase, Lock finished with a total of just one ace across the three sets while his Dutch competitor managed 14 as he dominated most of the proceedings. Lock’s only ace came in the first set which he won, but Haase still managed more as he had four while the Zimbabwean had one. In the second and third sets, Haase had four and six aces respectively while Lock had none.

The defeat was Lock’s third in five matches, having won two of his previous five games. Prior to the defeat at the hands of Haase, he won his first qualifier round match against Italy’s Lorenzo Giustino 2-1.

After losing the first set 6-0 where he was outplayed, Lock won the closely contested second set 6-4 before going on to wrap up the match by winning the third and final set 7-5.

The Zimbabwean star has had mixed results from the Challenger tours that he is participating in. At the Morelos Challenger doubles event, he lost in the final alongside his partner, Jose Rubin Statham from New Zealand. They lost against the pair of Skander Mansouri from Tunisia and Michail Pervolarakis from Greece.

Challenger Tours are the second highest tier of tennis competition behind the Association of Tennis Professionals (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