ITST News

Aimandfire wins his first title!
Written by Willito
10 Sep'24 - 21:49

Aimandfire won his first title at the 2024 Edition of the ITST World Tour 250 Winston-Salem Open using Jannik Sinner.

On the way to the title he beat veteran Coleplay (U. Humbert) in 2 sets with a score of 6-4, 7-5, another veteran of the game in Morey_87 (R. Nadal) 6-1, 6-2, second seed Willito (R. Nadal) 7-6, 7-6, and Dankur (C. Norrie), who just came from beating Top Seed Mohd, by a score of 6-1, 6-0, but was feeling a bit under the weather according to some reports from our on-court scouts.

His time at the practice court has been paying off lately, and it comes to show with this, his first title. We were able to catch an interview with him after his Quarter-Finals exit at the US Open to talk more about what this title means to him and how he won giving such an amazing display.

Q: Congratulations on winning your first title at the Winston-Salem Open. Please give us your thoughts on the championship match. 

A: The championship match seemed like it would be closely contested early on as we both held serve to get to 1-1. Then there was an epic game with like 7 deuces in which I finally broke Dankur's serve to get to 2-1. The rest of the match went by in roughly the same amount of time those first 3 games took, ending in 6-1 6-0. Dankur told me afterwards he was tired from his trip and wasn't able to focus, which seems likely given most of our practice sets are very tight.

Q: Q: How does it feel to get your first title during the hard court US Swing and beating top players including Dankur (C. Norrie) , who came off a big win vs World #2 Mohd (J. Sinner), and other veterans like Coleplay (U. Humbert) and Willito (R. Nadal)?

A: It definitely feels satisfying to actually claim a title. Obviously in a 250 players are experimenting with different chars so the results don't necessarily translate to bigger events but it does indicate I'm doing something right to get through a number of big names in a row.

Q: How did this win affect you going into the US Open and how do you feel about your performance there?

A: I don't think it affected me too much at the US Open. I played a great match against Coleplay, but I kinda knew it was unlikely I'd get past Willito using one of his good chars. I messed around with my camera angle for that match which was probably a bad idea but I felt I had to try something different. Valuable lesson learned I suppose haha.

Q: What are your goals for the rest of the season?

A: I'd like to qualify for the year end finals as I'm currently number 8. I'm also attempting to switch to no timing hint, and would like to get comfortable with that setup in tournament play.

Q: What are your goals for next year?

A: Next year I hope to reach the semis of a slam, and be able to put up a competitive match against the top players most of the time. I'm already doing better than I expected to but I also practice hard so some results are only natural.

Thanks for answering all our questions Aimandfire, it was a pleasure to have you. We look forward to seeing your results on the rest of the year, and next season!

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