Photo: Sarah-Jade Champagne
The singles draw at the Drummondville National Bank Challenger has reached the semifinal stage with four players remaining in title contention at the $80,000 ATP Challenger Tour event being held at the René-Verrier Indoor Tennis Club in Drummondville, Quebec until November 20.
One of the semifinalists is Canadian Vasek Pospisil (Vernon, BC) who defeated Harold Mayot of France 6-3, 7-6(3) in Friday’s quarter-finals. The 32-year-old veteran, seeded third in the tournament, wrapped up the opening set in a timely fashion and erased a break deficit in the second frame to secure a straight sets victory. On Saturday, Pospisil will appear in his sixth Challenger semifinal of the season when he takes on sixth-seeded Frenchman Antoine Escoffier who needed more than three hours to get the better of Aziz Dougaz of Tunisia 6-7(13), 7-6(5), 7-6(2) in his round of eight contest.
Saturday’s second semifinal will see Michael Mmoh, ranked no. 118 in the world, face Michael Geerts of Belgium. The second-seeded American was a 6-0, 7-5 winner over Charles Broom of Great Britain in the quarter-finals. Like Pospisil, the 24-year-old has enjoyed a lot of success on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2022 and will contest his seventh semifinal of the year in Drummondville. It’s also his second consecutive semifinal showing after reaching the final four in Knoxville last week. Last month, Mmoh defeated Canadian Gabriel Diallo to capture the Fairfield Challenger title.
Meanwhile, Geerts eliminated Alexis Galarneau (Laval, Quebec) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in Friday’s nightcap to complete the semifinal lineup. The Belgian hit 10 aces and saved four of the five break points he faced in the match. Galarneau will now head to Malaga, Spain to represent Canada in the Davis Cup Finals beginning next week.
The doubles final will be an all-British affair featuring the top-ranked duo of Julian Cash and Henry Patten going up against Arthur Fery and Giles Hussey. Cash and Patten will be looking to win their second title of the season in Quebec after being crowned champions at the Granby National Bank Championships this summer.
Saturday’s schedule gets underway at 12:00 p.m. ET and will feature both singles semifinals followed by the championship match in doubles.
