Aledo’s Krueger advances to Tasmania final, assured of his best ATP singles rank

Aledo tennis pro Mitchell Krueger has had some of his top career highlights in Australia over the years, especially at the $75,000 ATP Challenger event in Launceston, on the north coast of Tasmania, about as far from his North Texas hometown as a person can get.

The 23-year-old pro assured himself of his highest career ATP singles ranking Saturday with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over No. 6 seed Mohamad Safwat of Egypt in the semifinals of the Launceston International to advance to Sunday’s finals.

Krueger, who won the first of his two career Challenger doubles title in Launceston in 2015 playing with Radu Albot of Moldova, will crack the top 200 for the first time in his career Monday. He is projected to land at No. 190, but can go higher if he can win his first career Challenger singles title. His only other appearance in a Challenger singles final came in Binghamton, N.Y., in July.

However, to win the Sunday’s championship, Krueger will need all the good karma Launceston can provide when he goes up against his training partner, No. 196-ranked and No. 7 seed Noah Rubin, of Long Island, N.Y.

The 20-year-old Rubin has been on a nice roll. He qualified for the Australian Open last month and advanced to the second round, where he turned in a respectable performance in a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (3) loss to No. 10-ranked Roger Federer, who went on to win his 18th career Grand Slam singles title.

Krueger and Rubin are both coached by Stanford Boster, and after Saturday’s semifinal victory over Andrew Whittington, Rubin crediting his training in Boca Raton, Fla., during the off-season for his early season success.

“We were putting in a lot of hours on the court, more than I was used to,” Rubin told the ATP Tour. “We mainly worked on getting in better shape and just hitting a lot of balls to get my forehand to a place where it’s more of a weapon.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Aledo’s Krueger advances to Tasmania final, assured of his best ATP singles rank."