Just two Challenger Tour events were held last week with the first week of the French Open attracting most fans’ attention around the world. But we still had some strong stories with the bounce-back campaigns of Chun-Hsin Tseng (Vicenza) and Mitchell Krueger (Little Rock) continuing as the two picked up their second Challenger titles of the season. Read back on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Vicenza
Chun-Hsin Tseng won in Szekesfehervar back in March, but failed to push on from there with just two main draw wins in his next five events. Vicenza brought another bounce-back though with the Taiwanese not dropping a single set on the way to the final, including in the semifinal victory over in-form Francesco Passaro. Only Denis Yevseyev and Juan Carlos Prado Angelo took him to a tiebreak (the latter match had to be finished indoors, which Tseng handled a lot better and didn’t drop a game under the roof from six-all in the first set).
Marco Trungelliti couldn’t produce more Grand Slam qualifying magic in Paris this time, although he still posted a nice win over Juan Pablo Varillas. It’s still been a stellar season for the veteran and he got back to his top quality in Vicenza. After two straight-set victories early on, the Argentinian spent about five hours on court on Saturday, defeating Tomas Barrios Vera and Nerman Fatic. Tseng had to play twice too, but his encounters were much shorter.
And even after just a few minutes of watching the final, you could tell exactly what was going to happen. Tseng is so fast around the court anyway and his energetic style was especially troubling for a tired Trungelliti. The Taiwanese was getting to everything and often dragging his opponent from corner to corner as well. Tseng picked up his 5th Challenger title 6-3 6-2 and is likely to return to the Top 200 after Roland Garros. Both finalists are expected to feature in Challenger events this week – the champion in Prostejov, the runner-up in Zagreb.
Little Rock
Yuta Shimizu has been quietly putting in some decent work on the Challenger Tour this year with semifinal appearances in New Delhi and Hamburg and was unlucky to run into the terminator Adam Walton in his most recent event in Taipei. After flying over to the States he produced a fantastic set of displays to not drop a set on the way to the final. Only Nishesh Basavareddy managed to take him to a tiebreak, but Shimizu bageled him in the second set.
Mitchell Krueger has had a couple of tough years but is properly back in the mix on the Challenger Tour this year. Having already won Indian Wells at the start of the season and made the final in Tallahassee in April, the American locked up another strong run in Little Rock where he previously reached the final four in 2021. Liam Draxl and Abdullah Shelbayh pushed him to deciding sets, but Krueger stood his ground to make it to a championship match in 2024 once again.
Krueger had that big weight of shot edge over Shimizu and he was making good use of that in the final. He broke three times with some aggressive second serve returns and his strong backhand wasn’t bothered by the lefty spins of the Japanese. Last game got a little tense at 0-30, but Krueger wrapped it up in style to claim his 5th Challenger title 6-3 6-4 and likely secure a return to the top 200 after Roland Garros. Both finalists intend to appear in Tyler this week.
Events held this week:
- Lexus Surbiton Trophy (Challenger 125, grass)
- Neckarcup (Heilbronn, Challenger 100, clay)
- Unicredit Czech Open (Prostejov, Challenger 100, clay)
- Zagreb Open (Challenger 75, clay)
- Tyler Tennis Championships (Challenger 75, hard)
- AAT Challenger Santander Edicion Santa Fe (Challenger 50, clay)
Top 100 players in action:
- Alex Michelsen, Daniel Evans, Emil Ruusuvuori, Christopher O’Connell, Mackenzie McDonald, Brandon Nakashima, Aleksandar Vukic, Juncheng Shang, Adam Walton (Surbiton)
- Daniel Altmaier, Yannick Hanfmann, Sumit Nagal (Heilbronn)
- Laslo Djere, Yoshihito Nishioka (Prostejov)
First-round matches to watch:
Surbiton
- Denis Shapovalov vs (7) Aleksandar Vukic
- (ALT) Leandro Riedi vs Dominic Stricker
Dominic Stricker beat Leandro Riedi in an all-Swiss final at the 2020 French Open boys’ singles.
Heilbronn
- (1/WC) Daniel Altmaier vs (WC) Marko Topo
- Jan Choinski vs (2/WC) Yannick Hanfmann
Prostejov
- (1/WC) Laslo Djere vs Timofey Skatov
- Alex Molcan vs (5) Francesco Passaro
Zagreb
- Francesco Maestrelli vs (5) Quentin Halys
- (8) Henrique Rocha vs (PR) Nicolas Alvarez Varona
Tyler
- (3) Seong-Chan Hong vs Andres Andrade
- Cannon Kingsley vs (2) Coleman Wong
Santa Fe
- (WC) Alejo Lorenzo Lingua Lavallen vs (7) Andrea Collarini
- Ulises Blanch vs (2) Murkel Dellien
Main photo credit: Credit: Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union
