Feb. 3, 2014
Chitre, Panama – Former Georgia Tech doubles partners Kevin King and Juan Spir won their second ATP Challenger Tour title last weekend, winning the doubles championship at the $40,000 ATP Visit Panama Cup.
The Yellow Jacket All-Americans, unseeded in the event, knocked off the No. 2 seed Nicolas Barrientos and Eduardo Struvay of Columbia, 6-4, 6-1, in the second round, then defeated the third-seeded team of Riccardo Ghedin and Alessandro Motti of Italy, 7-6, 5-7, 10-5, in the semifinals. In the finals on Sunday, they captured a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Alex Llompart of Puerto Rico and Mateo Nicolas Martinez of Argentina.
Read championship match recap in Spanish
This was their second Challenger Tour title and fifth professional championship as a doubles tandem.
King (ATP singles rank of No. 503) and Spir (No. 464) are the top doubles tandem in Georgia Tech history with 66 victories and a pair of NCAA Championship appearances together. Spir, from Medellin, Colombia, amassed 103 doubles wins in four years at Tech, surpassing the previous school record of 90 set by King, who hails from Peachtree City, Ga. They qualified for and won a first-round match in the BB&T Atlanta Open in Atlanta in June.
