Filip Krajinovic and Daniel Smethurst might not be the best of friends on the USTA Pro Circuit, but they are certainly well acquainted.
They made nice, smiling and meeting at the net for a quick hug Sunday after Krajinovic defeated Smethurst 6-1, 7-6 (3) to win the Tour de Paul tournament.
It was the second time Krajinovic has defeated Smethurst in a Pro Circuit tournament final in the past seven days.
Smethurst, the No. 2 seed, tried to make light of their budding rivalry when addressing the crowd during the awards ceremony at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock.
“Two weeks in a row,” said Smethurst, the No. 2 seed. “It pains me to say this, but you suck.”
Krajinovic, a 22-year old Serbian, beat the 23-year-old Brit 6-2, 6-4 in the finals of a Futures Event in Harlingen, Texas, on April 6. Krajinovic, who collected $2,160 for winning Sunday, laughed at Smethurst’s light-hearted dig during the awards ceremony.
“It’s been a great two weeks,” Krajinovic told the crowd, before turning to Smethurst to add, “I love you.”
K rajinovic needed more than an hour to put away Smethurst in the second-set tiebreaker after winning the first set in 30 minutes.
Smethurst’s powerful serve proved to be no problem early for Krajinovic, who built a 3-0 lead by forcing Smethurst, ranked 259 in the world, into mistakes near the net.
“I was playing pretty safe,” Krajinovic said.
That strategy worked well in the first set, but it almost cost him in the second.
“That’s my game, to play safe,” Krajinovic said. “I should be more aggressive, I need to work on that right now.”
Smethurst, who was going for his 11th title in a Futures event, took a 1-0 lead in the second set before Krajinovic went up 4-2. Smethurst served his way back to take a 5-4 lead. But the last of Krajinovic’s five aces tied it at 5-5, and then, after falling behind 6-5, he forced a tiebreaker and winning 7-3.
Smethurst said his mistakes near the net in the first set put him in too big of a hole to come back on a player like Krajinovic, who is ranked No. 223 in the world.
“He knows the game, he plays all the shots, he makes it tricky,” Smethurst said. “He baits you, he’s got a lot of attributes. He’s a good player. I like to watch him play, as well.”
Krajinovic’s 10th consecutive singles victory in tournament play is the continuation of a comeback from shoulder surgery, caused by wear and tear, in 2010 ..
He was ranked as high as 170 in June 2010, a resume that included a victory over fellow Serb Novak Djokovic, now the world’s No. 2 player and winner of six Grand Slam titles, before surgery caused him to miss more than a year.
Krajinovic’s ranking dropped to 1,433 in September 2011.
But he said he’s 100 percent now, as evidenced by the past two weeks, and his ranking will climb even more after Sunday’s victory, getting closer to where he was before the surgery.
“No pain, which is important,” he said.
“I was confident I was going to come back.”
Krajinovic said he planned to travel immediately from Little Rock to Sarasota, Fla., for a Challenger event there. Challenger is considered a step above a Futures event because of the higher payouts and the tougher competitions.
It’s the next step on Krajinovic’s long road back to being ranked among the top 200.
“It’s hard to tell,” said Krajinovic of how high his ranking will rise.
“I didn’t look at that. I’m just focusing on my game. That’s all that matters.”
Sports, Pages 13 on 04/14/2014