Besides the big stage in Melbourne, the Challenger tour is slowly picking up speed. There will be four tournaments on four different continents on the men's side this week while the WTA will have its first WTA Challenger Series event of the year in Newport Beach. WTA Challenger events are also referred to as 125k series. However, Newport Beach is one of the tournaments sponsored by Oracle and therefore offers 162k in prize money in 2020.
Surface Change
Among the seeds in the singles draw is Usue Maitane Arconada, who we also had a few bets on by the end of last year. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old really gained a foothold in the WTA top 200. She's currently #131 in singles and #122 in doubles. The previewed match will feature her first round doubles match together with fellow American Jamie Loeb. They take on Japanese duo Eri Hozumi and Minori Yonehara.
The Japanese were teaming up for the first time last week in the ITF 25k event in Vero Beach. Despite being the #1 seed, they lost to Spanish pairing Burillo Escorihuela and Lazaro Garcia in the second round. Furthermore, the event was played on clay courts, so the two will have to adapt to a new surface this week.
North American Challenger Vibes
Arconada was competing in the Australian Open qualifying two weeks ago. In three close sets, she came up short against Romanian Elena Gabriela Ruse, 7-6 5-7 4-6. Before that, she made her way to the main draw in Auckland, where she also had Petra Martic in the ropes, only losing 7-5 4-6 4-6. Now she's back in the States to get some more matches under her belt.
Her and Loeb were reaching the final of the Challenger Series event in New Haven back in September last year. In the second round of said tournament, they also beat tomorrow's opponent Eri Hozumi, who played together with former doubles #20 Makoto Ninomiya at the time. Besides Hozumi/Ninomiya, Arconada/Loeb also beat Broady/Stollar in New Haven before losing the final to WTA level pairing Blinkova/Kalashnikova in a match tiebreak.
Hozumi's new partner Yonehara mainly played matches in Asia in previous years. While she was able to win a few ITF doubles events in Japan last year, I'm not sure if her level is high enough to go toe-to-toe with the Americans. If Arconada will be able to transfer her good form into the new year, which she already did in singles, her good shot placement and depth should make the difference. In my opinion, the two Americans have to be favored in this matchup.
