Top Seed Popko Claims Eighth ITF Singles Victory
Top seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan ended his season on a high note as he beat French doubles expert Fabien Reboul 6-4 6-2 in the final of the U$10,000 ITF Thailand Men’s Futures 6 at the True Arena in Hua Hin on Saturday,
ar-old world No 223 was put to the test in the first set by the 559 th ranked opponent, winner of the Thailand Futures 4 two weeks ago.
Popko, winner of three Men’s Futures titles this year coming to the final, managed a crucial break for a 5-4 lead in the first set before surviving challenge from Reboul in the following game to wrap up the opener in53 minutes.
The Kazakh young gun who was born in St Petersburg in Russia strode to a quick 5-0 lead in the second set as the French player who lifted up his 15 th ITF doubles trophy last week began to show fatigue from three set match with Chen Ti on Friday.
Though Reboul fought back to win the next two games, he lost his temper due to some disagreement with line calls and went down to the top seed after one hour and 29 minutes of play.
Dmitry has won a total of eight Men’s Futures singles titles. His previous wins in 2016 were at home in Kazakhstan and two in Turkey.
Of the six Futures series in the Kingdon this year, Thai No 1 Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul produced the best result among locals by reaching the semi-finals in Futures 3 in September. Two of the six doubles titles were won by Thai pairs, Pruchya Isarow and Chayanon Kaewsuto in Futures 4 and Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana on Friday.
Meanwhile in Bangkok, Pruchya Isarow and Chaleechan Tanasugarn were the only two Thais winning the first qualifying rounds of the US$50,000 ATP Bangkok Challenger 1 at Rama Gardens Hotel.
