ANSEONG, South Korea – Illinois men’s tennis’ rising senior Karlis Ozolins and rising junior Kenta Miyoshi both took home some hardware at ITF M15 Anseong, with Miyoshi winning the men’s doubles title on Saturday and Ozolins taking home the men’s singles crown on Sunday.
Miyoshi’s victory marked the first professional tournament win of his career, while Ozolins secured his first-ever professional singles title.
Miyoshi and his doubles partner, Edward Winter, dropped only one set en route to the tournament win, while Ozolins won in straight sets in both the semifinals and finals to clinch the event victory.
After defeating Yeonsu Jeong and Jangjun Kim in the first round, 6-2, 6-2, Miyoshi and Winter took down the top seed in the event, Yeongseok Jeong and Minkyu Song, in the quarterfinals. Securing a straight-set victory, 6-3, 7-5, Miyoshi and Winter booked their place among the final four teams in the competition.
In the semifinals, Miyoshi and Winter held a 2-1 advantage in the opening set before their opponents, Min Seong Kim and Minjong Park, were forced to retire, sending Miyoshi and Winter through to the finals.
Taking on the tournament’s No. 4 seed, Ethan Cook and Naoki Tajima, in the final round of doubles action, Miyoshi and Winter won the opening set, 6-3, before falling in the second frame, 7-5. The match came down to a winner-take-all third set, in which Miyoshi and Winter took a 5-2 lead before Cook and Tajima battled back to cut the score to 5-4. Winning five of the next seven points, Miyoshi and Winter closed out the three-set thriller, 10-6, to give Miyoshi the first professional title of his career.
Ozolins began his singles run with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the opening round before defeating No. 8-seeded Winter, who Ozolins had lost to last week, in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
Needing three sets in the quarterfinals to get past Masamichi Imamura, 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-3, Ozolins cruised through to the finals with a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Chase Ferguson.
In the finals, Ozolins squared off with the tournament’s top seed, Sanhui Shin, who entered the competition ranked over 600 places ahead of the Illini senior in the ATP rankings. Ozolins jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the opening frame, though Shin battled back to even the set at 4-4. Though Ozolins held leads of 5-4 and 6-5, the opening set went into…
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