Marcos Giron Captures Calabasas Futures Title

CALABASAS, Calif., (March 23, 2014) – Marcos Giron shook off a lackluster second set and rediscovered his free-swinging style in the third set, to defeat Jason Jung 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, in the men’s singles finals Sunday at the USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas, a USTA $15,000 Pro Circuit Futures event at the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center.

Giron, a UCLA junior from Thousand Oaks, picks up 27 ATP rankings points with the win in his first USTA Futures event of the year. He won two Futures singles titles last in 2013.

“In that second set I was up 3-2, and then there were three games in a row with a lot of deuce games,” said the 20-year-old Giron, who was No. 532 in the ATP World Tour rankings at the start of the event. “I was a little flat and he turned up his energy. He won all of those long games, but near the end of the second set I started to swing out more, meaning I was hitting freely. That really helped me in the third set.”

Giron started the third set serving, and both players held serve until 5-4. With Jung serving, Giron won a long point to make it 0-30, then Jung doubled faulted and hit a forehand into the net to end the match.

“It was two great SoCal kids going to battle,” said Grant Chen, UCLA’s assistant men’s tennis coach. “I think Marcos had some nerves in the second set, and responded well to close it out.”

“A lot of the errors were based on his pressure,” said Jung, 24, of Torrance, who has two Futures wins, one in 2012 and the other in 2013. “Congratulations to him. In that last game that long rally got to me and then it just went faster than I wanted it to, and he won. I’ve got a week off and we will see what the schedule holds next.

“I’ve played in two other Futures events this year, and this is my first final. I’m playing better and there are definitely some things I can improve on.”

In the doubles final pitting four former collegiate stars, the top-seeded team of Sekou Bangoura (Florida) and Evan King (Michigan) defeated Dennis Novikov (UCLA) and Connor Smith (Ohio State), 6-4, 6-4.

“We’re in sync right now,” Bangoura told Ken Thomas of Radio Tennis after the match. It was the second straight victory for the team as they also won the Bakersfield Futures event last week.

Sunday’s Singles Final Scores

Marcos Giron, U.S., def. Jason Jung, U.S. (3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

Sunday’s Doubles Final Score

Sekou Bangoura/Evan King, U.S. (1), def. Dennis Novikov/Connor Smith, U.S., 6-4, 6-4

Past Calabasas finalists:

Year Singles Winner Singles Runner-up

2014: Marcos Giron (US) def. Jason Jung (US)

2013: Sanam Singh (IND) def. Bradley Klahn (US)

2012: Tennys Sandgren (USA) def. Daniel Kosakowski (US)

2010: Marinko Matosevic (AUS) def. Ryan Sweeting (US)

2009: Donald Young (US) def. Michael Russell (US)

2008: Vince Spadea (US) def. Sam Warburg (US)

2007: Robert Kendrick (US) def. Donald Young (US)

2006: Mark Philippoussis (AUS) def. Amer Delic (US)

2005: Brian Vahaly (US) def. Denis Gremelmayr (GER)

2004: Ivo Karlovic (CRO) def. Alex Bogomolov Jr. (US)

2003: Jerome Golmard (FRA) def. Lars Burgsmuller (GER)

2002: Michael Chang (US) def. Cecil Mamiit (PHI)

2001: Andre Sa (BRA) def. Michael Russell (US)