BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE The Zimbabwe tennis doubles pair of Benjamin and Courtney Lock missed out on what would have their biggest win together in professional tennis after they reached the final of Open Castilla y León on the ATP Challenger Tour in Spain on Saturday.
Benjamin and his younger brother Lock lost to Spaniards Inaki Montes-DeLa Torre and Nicolas Alvarez Varona 7–6 6–3 in the finals of the event sponsored to the tune of €64 000.
It was the first Challenger Tour final for the duo which has won as many as 16 doubles titles on the less lucrative ITF circuit.
However, the older of the two brothers, Benjamin has won three doubles titles on the Challenger Tour before.
In 2020, the 29-year-old tennis player teamed up with American Evan King to win the Launceston Challenger 80 in Tasmania, Australian and also joined forces with Yu Hsiou Hsu from Chinese Taipei as they bagged back-to-back Nur-Sultan Challenger tournament in Kazakhstan last year.
Reaching the Open Castilla y León remains the biggest achievement for the Zimbabwean pair as the ATP Challenger Tour is the second-highest tier of tennis competition for men behind the lucrative ATP Tour.
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Players, who succeed on the ATP Challenger Tour, earn sufficient ranking points to become eligible for main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP Tour tournaments.
The Lock Brothers, who have won three ITF titles so far this year following the return of Courtney from a lengthy period on the sidelines after a double hip surgery late last year, got a bye into the quarterfinal of the Open Castilla y León after their match against Dmitry Popko and Altuğ Çelikbilek was cancelled.
In the quarterfinals they beat the pair of Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan and Moldovan Alexander Cozbinov 6 – 4 4–6 10–6; and also got the better of the Spanish pair of Alejandro Moro Canas and John Echeverria 5–7 7–5 10–7 in the penultimate stage.
The previous week Benjamin Lock reached the semi-finals of the Nur-Sultan Challenger tournament in Kazakhstan playing alongside native, Grigoriy Lomakin.
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