Chief of Public Security, Lt-General Tariq Al Hassan, attended the couples category of the Interior Ministry Tennis Challenger finale on Sunday. The President of the Bahrain Tennis Association, Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the President of the Bahrain Tennis Club, Khamis Al Muqla and a number of general directors and senior officers at the Ministry of Interior attended.
The Chief hailed the major support of His Excellency Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa to the Public Security Sports Association to organise this championship in Bahrain. He said that the event contributed to the success of Bahrain in winning the trust of the International Tennis Federation to host this championship season. He said that he followed up on the progress of the event that is being held for the third time in Bahrain and the second time at the playgrounds of the Public Security Officers Club.
He thanked the Public Security Sports Association and the Public Security Officer Club for organising this distinguished event and any contributors to its success. At the end of the fame, the Chief honoured the winners.
Finland's Patrik Niklas-Salminen and Bart Stevens of Holland emerged champions of the Bahrain Tennis Challenger, part of the ATP Challenger Tour, being held at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
The tournament's third seed pair proved too strong for their rivals Ruben Gonzales of the Philippines and Fernando Ramboli of Brazil in an exciting final of the men's doubles event last night, winning the title decider 6-3, 6-4.
Niklas-Salminen and Stevens showed outstanding overall performance with significant understanding and unparalleled stamina to secure the competition's gold medal and the coveted trophy.
On the other hand, the challenging pair of Ramboli and Gobzat - who entered the championship as the fourth seed, fought hard throughout the match but were unable to match the strength and experience of their opponents to settle for second place award.
Early on, the semifinals of the men's singles took place as Jordan's Abedallah Shelbayh and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia reached the final after two dramatic victories.
Shelbayh, who entered the championship as a wild card player, extended his impressive run and scored a 6-5, 6-2 win over Salvatore Caruso to set up his title show down against the eighth seed Australian who edged German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1 in another well-contested semifinal battle.
Shelbayh's dream of winning his maiden ATP Tennis Challenger title was further boosted in the event being organised by the Public Security Sports Federation.
In this highly-anticipated tie of this ATP Challenger Tour, being held at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya, the unseeded Shelbayh was again in top form to produce another impressive win and take another step closer to his first-ever ATP Tennis Challenger title.
Coming fresh from his stunning three-set upset victory over No.1 seed Australian Jason Kubler, Shelbayh started his semifinal tie, Shelbayh started his match well and took the first set with a narrow margin after a well contested battle with his Italian opponent.
Caruso, aged 30 with a world ranking of 380 and is also tournament unseeded, was hoping to come back in the following set to extend the match into a third set.
But the 19-year-old Jordanian rising tennis hope, who has a 399 ATP ranking, ruled much of the second set which he won with ease to secure his berth in the title clash.
In the other semifinal, Struff and Kokkinakis produced one of the tournament's most well-contested matches and it was the latter who came out victorious thanks to his precision reaction in the deciding stages of this encounter.
Twenty six-years-old Kokkinakis showed a better overall play early in the game and too the first set 6-4.
The second set was very close as Struff fought hard to win the set 7-6(3) to send the match into a third decisive set.
However, the final set was a Kokkinakis proved the stronger side with some solid performance and outstanding stamina to secure the set 6-1 and with it the match and a berth in the competition's final.
