The ATP professional tennis tournament was held March 13 – 19th at the beautiful Phoenix Country Club
The Arizona Tennis Classic 2023 tournament returned to Phoenix once again to treat local tennis fans to high level professional tennis right in our own backyard. This event is an ATP Premium Challenger event which is a part of the ATP Tour’s elite “Challenger 175” category, and is the only event of this category held in the United States. This annual tennis tournament returns to the Phoenix Country Club in central Phoenix making it easy for tennis fans all across the valley to attend.
Arizona Tennis Classic 2023 highlights
This years Phoenix Country Club tennis tournament featured several of the sports well-known names including 2019 event champion and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini. Other notable players participating in the event this year were Diego Schwartzman, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, and Alexander Bublik.
We were fortunate to be able to attend the event on Saturday for the semi-final matches where the notable players scheduled to play on that day were Alexander Bublik in the first match of the day followed by Matteo Berrettini in the second semi-final match of the day.
With both Bublik and Berrettini scheduled to match up against players currently ranked outside of the top 100, we obviously expected both to advance to the finals scheduled for Sunday.
But, anything can happen in sports and it happened on our day at the Arizona Tennis Classic, 2023 edition. Both seeded players lost in close matches and exited the event much earlier than expected.
Bublik and Berrettini Surprise Exit
Bublik in our opinion was taking it easy in the first set of his match, talking with his coach after every point when on that side of the court and engaging with the crowd which looked to have taken his concentration away from the competition on the court. He used several underhand serves in the first set which visibly pissed off his opponent Jan-Lennard Struff and Bublik promptly lost the first set.
Bublik fared better in the second set when he seemed to play harder and he made a higher percentage of his first serves in the second set compared to the first set. And then he turned it up a notch in the third set, he stopped talking to his coach and the crowd and he focused more on his game and the competition.
But the opponent Struff from Germany, currently the 134th ranked player in the world also upped his game and he was able to come out with the unexpected victory over Bublik by taking the third set.
Berrettini was clearly the main draw and the name most fans came to see. The seating for Berrettini vs Shevchenko was packed with not an empty seat in sight. Clearly, Berrettini was expected to win this match handily since Shevchenko is a young 22 year old player that just turned pro in 2018 and is currently ranked 132nd in the world.
But on this day the players were evenly matched in my opinion and Shevchenko successfully returned everything Berrettini sent his way. I think by the look on Berrettini’s face as the match progressed he was surprised at how well Shevkenko was playing, and in the third set, Berrettini blinked first, made some mistakes and Shevchenko pulled out the unexpected victory.
Phoenix Challenger Tennis
While at the event I heard some fans calling the tournament the Phoenix Challenger Tennis event which is not entirely accurate, but it gives local tennis fans a chance to say we host our own local pro tennis tournament.
The Phoenix Country Club tennis tournament was well organized and well attended by local tennis fans which is good to see. The Phoenix Country Club is a small venue to host an event but it was so nice to see the stands packed and full for tennis in the Valley and I hope the strong support bodes well for the event to continue and grow each year on in to the future.
As a local tennis fan, I want to say thank you to the organizers that take the time to bring professional tennis to the Phoenix area. Hopefully with our coverage of the event maybe it will be our small contribution to growing the event for future editions.
See you next year at the Arizona Tennis Classic 2024!
