THUNDER BAY -- Jeremy Langer is a perfect four-for-four in Thunder Bay.
Langer, the 21st ranked men’s tennis player in Canada, knocked off doubles partner Jesse Flores 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to captures the singles title at the Port Arthur Family Dental Mid-Canada Open, his second consecutive win at the event.
He and Flores also captured the men’s doubles crown for a second straight year.
“Something about the community here makes me really comfortable to play here,” said the 26-year-old Langer, a 2012 graduate of the University of Indiana.
“Everyone’s just really nice and for some reason it just brings out my best tennis.”
Familiarity with Flores’ play might have played a small role in his triumph, but it was an internal recognition that really helped him over the top.
“Being my doubles partner, I know his tendencies a little bit – or make that a lot,” he said. “The difference today was I kept myself calm. At one point in the first set I lost my focus a little bit.
“And that’s because I felt myself getting nervous, I felt myself getting too riled up between points, make the shots I needed to make and I knew I’d be OK.”
The two players held serve though the first three games of the opening set, but Langer broke Flores to go up 3-1 when his opponent’s costly unforced error found the net.
Flores, a senior at the University of Miami, caught a break in the seventh game when the chair judge ruled his break-point shot was in play, putting the match back on serve.
But Langer answered with a break of his own and went on to serve out the first-set win.
“Whether it was in, or whether it was out, I know from experience there is no point getting upset about it. At the end of the day that’s what the ref is there for, to make those calls,” Langer said.
“I did get upset about and realized I was just getting too riled up. Even arguing for one second was too much. I learned from that in the next game it just helped me to calm down.”
The left-handed Langer broke Flores in the third game of the second set, held serve the rest of the way to win the match.
Minneapolis’s Alexis Nelson took the women’s singles title, downing fellow Minnesotan Jackie Cychosz 6-1, 6-0 in the championship final.
Nelson and Thunder Bay’s Jordee Matson took the doubles crown, Cychosz again finishing in the runner-up spot.
“It feels great,” said the 17-year-old Nelson, who plans to attend the University of California-Berkley on a tennis scholarship in the fall. “I had a really great weekend here. It’s my first time in Thunder Bay and I really enjoyed it, the entire atmosphere of the tournament.
“I’ve been practicing a lot and playing a lot of matches and that helped. I’m feeling a bit better in my game. I was struggling a little bit earlier in the year with my game, but I think this tournament, with its atmosphere and everything just relaxed me and let me play some better tennis.”
