THUNDER BAY – Pavel Krainik is used to the heat.
Currently ranked 949th in the world and looking to move into the top 500, the Russian-born 24-year-old sweated it out across Europe and in Turkey already this year.
A little Thunder Bay sunshine wasn’t much of a test on Sunday afternoon, as he sought his second Mid-Canada Open men’s singles championship at the Thunder Bay Tennis Centre.
Krainik made easy work of 18-year-old Victor Krustev, downing his Toronto opponent 6-2, 6-2 to capture the title, his first at the event since 2014.
Krainik broke Krustev to open the match and never looked back.
“I knew he played many hours yesterday. He had a really tough quarterfinal match,” Krainik said of his opponent.
“I knew he kind of didn’t want to rally with me, so I took the initiative from the start and started being aggressive with him, even from his first service game. I think it set a big momentum for me, because that’s how it continued throughout the match.”
He was just a little bigger, a little stronger throughout the contest, breaking Krustev again in the seventh game of the opening set, firing an ace to secure the 6-2 win.
It was much of the same in the second set, Krainik breaking Krustev’s serve in the third and fifth games, finishing the match with an ace in the eighth game.
“Obviously I’m trying to enjoy myself, but winning is for me very important because I’m competitive and I want to win as much as possible,” said Krainik, who next intends to attempt to qualify for the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Krustev said it just wasn’t his day.
He spent 3.5 hours on the court on Saturday in downing Edward Nguyen 6-7, 7-5, 7-5 in the quarterfinal round, then was right back out there taking on Malik Bhatnagar in a straight set win in the semifinal. Krainik, on the other hand, cruised to a two-set win in the quarterfinal, losing just one game to Jared Horwood, and had almost as easy a time against Jesse Flores in the semifinal, a 61, 6-3 triumph.
The early break was tough to adjust to, Krustev said.
“He was making a lot of great returns. Maybe I wasn’t making enough first serves as well,” he said. “He was just a better version of myself, I feel. He hit heavier, obviously his serves and his returns were a lot better as well.
“He played well on big points as well. I didn’t play bad, I was just a bit low on energy.”
Jackie Cychosz took the women’s open single title, knocking off Kristine Gascon.
