Two sets took more than two hours before top-seeded Go Soeda finally outlasted unseeded Mischa Zverev 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to win his second straight Challenger in Hawaii.
Soeda needed two hours, 13 minutes to win the $50,000 Maui Challenger at Wailea Tennis Club. A year ago, he beat Robby Ginepri in the final of the Honolulu Challenger at Kailua Racquet Club.
Each win was good for $7,200 and 80 ATP ranking points.
The Challengers are part of the 34-year-old USTA Pro Circuit, the largest developmental tennis circuit in the world. Hawaii has hosted a Challenger since 2000, with Andy Roddick winning in 2001 and James Blake in 2002.
Soeda, 28, from Kanagawa, Japan, went into Sunday’s final with a No. 73 world ranking. He earned 17 break points against Zverev, but the German — originally from Moscow — fought off 10 to extend the match.
Soeda won 90 points in the straight-sets marathon and Zverev 80, many with his left-handed serve-and-volley game.
"He has a big serve," Soeda said by phone. "I tried to keep my concentration today because today it was really hot and I was really tired. I think I won because I kept my concentration."
After winning last year’s Honolulu Challenger, Soeda won three more in Asia in the spring. He played on the Japanese Davis Cup team and fell in the early rounds of the three remaining slams, to Dimitry Tursunov at the French, Juan Martin Del Potro at Wimbledon and Mardy Fish at the U.S. Open.
Ten days ago, Soeda lost to Jo Wilfried-Tsonga in the second round of the Australian Open. Next up is a Davis Cup match against Indonesia in Japan. Soeda has been ranked as high as 27th and hopes to get back into the top 40 this year.
He got a great start here, again, showing a stamina no one else could match.
"I like this place because it’s nice and this heat is good. I really like it," Soeda said. "There is something special in Hawaii for me."
Zverev won a Futures event — a step below a Challenger — two months ago in Florida. He is currently ranked 158th, but was as high as No. 45 in 2009. The 25-year-old upset three seeded players to reach the final, ousting two-time Hawaii champ Michael Russell in a semifinal.
Russell is the men’s all-time leader in USTA Pro Circuit singles titles with 22.
Hsin-Han Lee and Hsien-Yin Peng, the third-seeded team from Taipei, won the doubles title 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 10-5 over unseeded Americans Tennys Sandgren and Rhyne Williams. Lee and Peng split $3,100.
