It took a while for Philippine national tennis team veteran Ruben Gonzales and American partner Reese Stalder to get going as a pair. In their fourth team-up in a month, the duo seems to finally have figured things out.
Gonzales and Stalder overcome a stiff challenge from third seeds Rinky Hijikata of Australia and Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and prevailed in two close sets, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, on Saturday morning (Philippine time) in the semifinals of Georgia’s Rome Challenger held on the hardcourts of Rome, Georgia, United States.
Seeded second in the $53,120 ATP Challenger event which is the first-ever staging of this tournament, Gonzales and Stalder banked on their steadier first serves which resulted in five aces to overcome their young foes.
Their semifinal encounter was so tight that only one service break separated the two pairs.
Gonzales and Stalder have not dropped a set the entire tournament. They opened their campaign by winning over Americans Ezekiel Clark and Joshua Sheehy, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1). In the quarterfinals, the second seeds made quick work of Aleksandar Kovacevic of the United States and Michail Pervolarakis of Greece, 6-3, 6-3.
Standing in the way of Gonzales and Stalder’s march to the championship trophy will be fourth seeds Enzo Couacaud of France and Andrew Harris of Australia. Couacaud and Harris have also not dropped a set on their way to the finals which will be played on Saturday.
