A COUPLE of 29-year-olds have wound back the clock to topple their younger opponents and book a spot in the Newport Beach WTA Challenger final. United States’ Madison Brengle and Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele both won through to the deciding match of the tournament after straight sets wins in their respective matches. Meanwhile in the men’s event, a couple of big upsets saw the two remaining seeds bundled out of the competition and Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan and unseeded American, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski advance to the final.

Women’s:

Voegele down second seed, Taylor Townsend to ensure it was not an all-American final with an impressive 6-2 6-3 rout in just 69 minutes. Voegele won 54.8 per cent of her first serve points and 71.4 per cent of her second serve points, a complete contrast to Townsend who was down on her usual performance, winning just 35.3 and 4.67 respectively. It was such a dominant performance on return that Voegele won 61.2 per cent of her receiving points, and broke six times from nine attempts, while Townsend broke twice from both chances.

The world 117 now faces Brengle in the decider after the top 100 American took out giant-killer Nadia Podoroska who had previously defeated three seeds on her way to the semi-finals. It took Brengle an hour and 43 minutes, but the fifth seed got it done in a tight one, winning 6-4 7-6 to reverse the result of their previous meeting back in 2017 when Podoroska got the chocolates as a 19-year-old. Brengle was really consistent on serve, winning more than half of her first and second serve points, while dominating on return with even more points won there, at 54.8 per cent success. She broke six times from six attempts, while the Argentinian 22-year-old might be ruing missed opportunities, having only broken five times from 14 chances.

WTA Results:

[5] M. Brengle (USA) defeated N. Podoroska (ARG) 6-4 7-6
[6] S. Voegele (SUI) defeated [2] T. Townsend (USA) 6-2 6-3

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Galan booked a spot in the decider after an impressive win over 13th seed American, Mitchell Krueger. The 164th ranked American had produced an impressive tournament, which included a huge upset win against top seed and reigning back-to-back champion, Taylor Fritz. Galan was touted as a potential dark horse in the tournament at the start, and he showed all of his experience in a wonderful display winning 6-2 7-6. Currently ranked 186th in the world, the Colombian won 72 per cent of his first serve points, and capitalised on his opponents’ second serve with a 61 per cent success rate. He broke four times from eight chances and was only broken twice himself, but was lucky to get away with the narrow win after a tight tiebreaker in the second set which saw him win 7-5 and take out the match. Galan was stronger across the board and will be tough to beat in the final.

Kwiatkowski is the surprise packet of the tournament, with the 271st ranked American taking down fourth seed, Steve Johnson in three sets. He dropped the first set 6-3, before coming back to win in two hours, 3-6 7-6 6-1 getting stronger as the match went on. The 24-year-old has only player four ATP Tour matches, all of which ended in losses. However a finals appearance on the challenger tour could be what the big server needs, troubling his more experienced opponent in the match. Kwiatkowski threw down 10 aces and won 88 per cent of his first serve points, as well as more than half of his second serve points. He broke three times to Johnson’s one, though could have been more efficient given he had 11 break point opportunities. Johnson himself had an impressive 17 aces, but could not win enough when in play, and only won 23 per cent of his total return points in the match, exiting the tournament at the semi-finals stage.

ATP Results:

D. Galan (COL) defeated [13] M. Krueger (USA) 6-2 7-6
T. Kwiatkowski (USA) defeated [4] S. Johnson (USA) 3-6 7-6 6-1