BASINGSTOKE tennis stars Alex Bogdanovic and Josh Goodall completed a winning double at the Nottingham Challenger event last weekend.
Bogdanovic won the singles crown, while Goodall teamed up with Martin Lee to take the doubles title.
For Bogdanovic it was a second Challenger victory after winning at Manchester last year.
The 21-year-old, who trains at Hampshire Centrecourt and Manydown, beat fellow Brit Mark Hilton in the final 6-3, 7-5 after he broke his opponent for the first time at 5-5 in the second set.
It helped the British number three to put behind him the disappointment of Wimbledon, where he went out in the first round.
Bogdanovic said: "It was good to get some wins under my belt after Wimbledon, and it was great to win another tournament.
"It was a tough week as my first three matches went to three sets. I started as favourite in the final, as I had beaten Hilton a couple of times and I was happy with the way the match went."
On his way to the final, the British star beat Diego Hartfield from Argentina in round one 2-6, 7-6, 6-3. And then, in another long match, he saw off Mexican Santiago Gonzalez 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
In the quarter-finals Bogdanovic came up against another domestic talent in Arvind Parmar and, in a titanic battle, he won 7-2 in a third set tie-breaker for a 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 victory.
His semi-final opponent, Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus, retired due to injury when he trailed 6-2, 2-0.
Then followed the straight-sets win over Hilton to take the crown.
For Basingstoke-born Goodall, it was his first Challenger title and it was the first time he had played doubles with fellow Brit Martin Lee.
The pair won the final 6-4, 7-6, with the tie-break won to love over Jean-Michel Pequery (France) and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan).
Goodall said: "I only played in the doubles to work on my serving and volleying for my singles game, so it was a real bonus to be at the tournament all week and win it."
The big game for the British duo came in the semi-finals when their opponents and fellow countrymen Daniel Kiernan and James Auckland served for the match - only for Goodall and Lee to break them and then take the tie-break on their way to a 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Goodall said: "When you look back on it, that was a really big game in the whole tournament and we played it so well to break back and then take the tie-break.
"The whole week has done my confidence no harm at all."
To reach the semi-finals, the pair beat Lee Childs and David Sherwood 6-3, 6-4 and, in their opening round, they saw off Frederik Nielsen (Denmark) and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (India) 6-4, 6-4.
Both Goodall and Bogdanovic are currently in action at the Manchester Challenger tournament.
First published: Thursday, July 14, 2005
