Kozlov Hits Hot Shot Double At Tempe Challenger

Rising American star Stefan Kozlov gave a nod to Hot Shot king Dustin Brown after striking two impressive Hot Shots of his own in the same point at this week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tempe, Arizona.

Facing Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador in the second-round, the #NextGenATP star hit a reflex shot between his legs at 1-1 in the second set. If that wasn’t enough, he responded to an overhead from Quiroz by leaping up and hitting an overhead winner of his own from the baseline, raising his arms in triumph.

“I don’t normally practise that,” joked Kozlov. “It just caught me in no-mans-land. I didn’t know whether to hit a forehand or a backhand. It was just instinct to hit it between my legs…I had a little adrenaline and got lucky when he hit the overhead right to me. It was a really tough overhead and I was pretty shocked afterwards. I haven’t had too many of those kind of points. It was exciting.”

Kozlov posted the video to his Instagram account afterwards and captioned it “On my @Dreddy_Ja game today,” referring to Brown. The American remarked that he’s “seen plenty of his Hot Shots in person and on social media, so obviously he’s really good at those. It almost seems like he does those casually now.”

Next up for Kozlov is a quarter-final battle on Friday against sixth seed Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.