Week 29 was exceptional for LOVE 4 Tennis Academy. Illya Marchenko coached by Tibor Toth dominated at Italian Challenger in Recanati. Ukrainian tennis player won his first singles title this season, overall his fifth.

Marchenko played difficult Davis Cup matches against Austria for Ukrainian national team before going to Austria. Against Dennis Novak, he won in four sets, against Jurgen Melzer, Marchenko lost after dramatic five setter.  “Ilya arrived directly from Davis Cup, he was tired because he played two long matches there, over 4 hours together. He had unpleasant blisters, so first round did not really look good. Against French Janvier, he could have won in two sets, he was 6-2 up in the second set tie break, but he made it too complicated for himself. He spent more time than needed in high temperatures on the court,” said Tibor Toth, his coach.

In second round, Marchenko was almost given bye, his opponent Dustov from Uzbekistan retired after two played games. “This way he had more time to recover until the next match. He was very convincing in the quarterfinal and the semi-final. He served well. Final against Belarussian Ivashka was bit more nervous, it was played late evening under floodlights. Illya did not have as good first serve as until then. He was always break up and even when he lost his serve, he managed to immediately break his opponent. He was better at long rallies from the baseline. I am glad he won the tournament, becuase he was not completely fit for long time, had couple of injuries, which had direct effect on the results, “ said Toth.

With 90 points from the challenger, Marchenko moved up to 72nd place in the ATP rankings, he is not far from reaching his career best. He only needs to climb up 6 spots.

Marchenko now joins Challenger in Segovia, Spain and then will play at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, representing Ukraine.

Recanati, Italy, GUZZINI CHALLENGER, ATP Challenger, 42 500 €, hard court, outdoors:
Illya MARCHENKO (UKR) [2]
1R: Maxime JANVIER (FRA) 6-1 6-7(6) 7-6(4)
2R: Farrukh DUSTOV (UZB) 2-0 ret.
QF: Alessandro BEGA (ITA) 6-1 6-3
SF: Marton FUCSOVICS (HUN) [3] 6-3 6-2
F: Ilya IVASHKA (BLR) 6-4 6-4