Bradley Klahn Continues Rise to Top 100

When Bradley Klahn ended last year at 248 I didn't really view him as a prospect that could rise into double digits in ranking. Sure, he had some game coming out of Stanford and looked like a guy that could make a little noise in challengers, but not making it past a quarterfinal in a challenger in 2012 doesn't scream top 100. He did have a signature win at the first round of the US Open over Jurgen Melzer, though, which suggested he had potential.

This year has been a different story. He won his first future title (USA F8), made the final of Winnetka challenger (l. to Sock), the final of Binghampton challenger (l. to Kuznetsov), the semis of Lexington and he won his first challenger in Aptos. That furious run was followed up with another first round win at the US Open, and he gave Feliciano Lopez a big run for his money in the 2nd round losing in 4 tough sets.

His consistent effort and fitness each week is paying off. On this run in Australia/Asia in the last month he was a quarterfinalist in Melbourne and a finalist in Traralgon.

This week in Yeongwol, South Korea, Klahn posted the following results:

d. Klein 6-4, 6-1
d. Chen 6-1, 6-3
d. Gigounon 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
d. Wu 6-4, 6-3
d. Daniel 7-6, 6-2

You might argue the degree of difficult in South Korea challengers is smaller and I'd agree... but I've seen Taro Daniel play and he's a very good tennis player. He's long and lean, runs down a tons of balls and has a really impressive baseline game. I was impressed to see Klahn work him over in straights despite having a ton of tennis in his legs over the last three weeks, combined with travel from the US to Australia to South Korea.

The title will put Klahn, by my calculations, around 101 in the world, knocking on the door of the top 100 and a direct entry to the Aussie Open.

Props to Tim Smyczek, as well. It's not often we get two titlists in the same week these days. Smyczek had this run in the Knoxville Challenger:

d. Wolmarans 6-4, 6-4
d. S. Johnson 5-7, 7-5, 6-4
d. Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-3
d. Sandgren 7-5, 7-6
d. Polansky 6-4, 6-2