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Recently, I dropped by the 20th Annual USTA Pro Circuit Claremont Futures, to cover the finals of this event:
Here is the result for the match that I featured:
CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND (with seedings):
(2) Deiton Baughman d. Mackenzie McDonald 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
Baughman, a 19-year-old pro from Carson, California, didn’t need to win a third set during his previous four wins and run to the final.
Back in January on the clay in Sunrise, Fla., Baughman had to come back to win that Futures, after losing the first set in his final four matches. He did the same in his final two matches, to win his second Futures event in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina in June.
“It was kind of nice to have my second Pro Circuit title in the States come that way and not to have to play a three-set match till the final,” Baughman said after receiving the $1,440 first-place check and 17 valuable ATP points. “After I lost the first set I just had to remind myself mentally that I’ve been in this situation before this year and been able to get it back down a set and a break or whatever.”
After dropping the first set 6-2, Baughman played more aggressive and focused getting an early break for a 3-0 lead. But down 1-4, McDonald was able to hold and break to get back to 3-4 on serve but Baughman promptly broke right back for 5-3 and then served out the second set.
“I had four break points against me in the first two (service) games in the first set,” Baughman said. “He just outplayed me. I just told myself I’m not playing terrible, he’s playing great and all I can do is raise my level.”
Baughman began the third set with a huge break of serve and continued to serve well hitting a huge ace to win the eighth game and go up 5-3 after being down love-30.
Baughman concluded: “I don’t feel like we both played our best. I look at my match in the quarterfinals against Gonzales (Austin) and his match in the semis yesterday against Collin (Altamirano) and they were just 10 times as better as this. Sometimes you get that in a final.”
McDonald, playing in his first Pro Circuit final, said the service game was the key to the match. “I thought my serve kind of decreased as the match went on, and I started to think about that,” said the 20-year-old UCLA junior from Piedmont, California. “I thought I played really good tennis this week. I was really happy with a lot of things I did. I got to play five matches and I just have to keep getting better. I’m going to keep working on my serve.”
McDonald went on to win the doubles of the Costa Mesa Futures the following week, with UCLA teammate Martin Redlicki.
Baughman made it to last weekend’s semifinal of the Costa Mesa Futures, which helped to catapult him to his highest ATP ranking ever: #372. He then went on to receive a wildcard into the main draw of the Tiburon Challenger, as did McDonald.
Baughman and fellow American Tommy Paul made a great showing in the first round of the 2015 U.S. Open main draw doubles. They fell to the Brazilian team of Marcelo Demoliner and Thomaz Bullucci 7-6(1), 7-6(5).
Additional information in this report was provided by the USTA Pro Circuit PR Press Aide, Steve Pratt.
Here is the link to the page with the USTA Pro Circuit events that we have in the United States this year:
2015 USTA Pro Circuit Calendars
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– Marcus Tennis
