Tomas Machac is now on 10 wins in a row as he claimed back-to-back victories in Orleans and Mouilleron-Le-Captif. Also on great Challenger runs are Constant Lestienne (three titles in the last five events) and Zachary Svajda (two titles in the last three). Thiago Monteiro secured a much-needed trophy in Campinas, while Flavio Cobolli finally turned his consistent season into one that expands his cabinet. Read back on last week’s action:
Alicante
There’s something about Hugo Grenier and the Spanish hard court Challengers. The Frenchman was the runner-up in Alicante in 2021 and the champion in Segovia in 2022, before already claiming two such titles this year – Las Franquesas del Valles and Pozoblanco. He actually didn’t win a match between the latter and Alicante, but managed to produce another stellar run with just one set lost on the way to the final (to Dennis Novak in the final four).
Constant Lestienne loves these settings too, having won Malaga and Pozoblanco in 2022, along with beating Grenier in that aforementioned Alicante 2021 final. With two Challenger titles in his last four appearances at this level, the 31-year-old has picked up steam at the right moment to have a chance at securing at spot in the Australian Open main draw. Beating four opponents without dropping a set (two tie-breaks required) allowed him to secure a final rematch with Grenier.
Grenier took a dramatic 12-10 tie-break in the opening set, but Lestienne soon enough began finding that formula needed to play against his countryman again. He withstood 24 aces from his opponent, spread the court well, and utitilized his variety to expoit the lack of threat coming from Grenier’s baseline play after the serve is neutralized. Lestienne claimed his 9th Challenger title (3rd this season) 6-7 6-2 6-4. This will likely get him into the Australian Open main draw. Both finalists play Malaga next, Grenier getting a special exempt.
Mouilleron-Le-Captif
Arthur Fery, who played college tennis for Stanford as recently as this season, has had a proper professional breakthrough the past couple of weeks. Ahead of Orleans the week before Mouilleron-Le-Captif, he had never gone past round two at a Challenger. He made the quarterfinals there though and was even better in his next event. He started from the qualifying again, defeating players like Giulio Zeppieri, David Goffin, and Antoine Escoffier to make his first Challenger final.
Tomas Machac won Orleans after a high-profile final with Jack Draper. While the Brit started feeling the accumulated fatigue during his Mouilleron-Le-Captif run, it was never truly a factor with the Czech after the opening round. He came back from a set down to beat Gijs Brouwer and didn’t drop another set on the way to the final. In the final four, he took down Lucas Pouillain, who eliminated the aforementioned Draper a round earlier.
After dropping that aformentioned set to Brouwer, Machac was simply in business mode the rest of the week. That continued in the final as he only faced one break point and made many inroads on the Fery serve, keeping him on his toes and holding up in cat-and-mouse rallies near the net. Machac claimed his 6th Challenger title 6-3 6-4 and has now won 16 of his last 17 matches. That puts him in the top 80 in the ATP Live Rankings. Both finalists are scheduled to play in Bratislava next.
Campinas
Camilo Ugo Carabelli won Antofagasta at the end of September and then took a week of rest before Campinas. That definitely worked as the Argentinian enjoyed another extremely good run with his opponents on the way to the final getting to over three games in a set only once. That set he actually lost to Jose Pereira, but managed to win the next two with ease and secure his third Challenger final in the last four events he played at this level.
Thiago Monteiro‘s 2023 campaign was really poor for his standards with even his Challenger appearances earning him just one semifinal. But the Brazilian scored a surprise win over Holger Rune in a Davis Cup tie (indoors in Denmark) and used that confidence to make his first final of the season. That happened despite a really tough draw that saw him pitted against Facundo Diaz Acosta in round two and Hugo Dellien in the quarterfinals. Against both players, he came back from a set down.
The roaring home crowd in Campinas was definitely a factor for Monteiro this week and it felt like he was feeding off its energy. After dropping the opening set, he went up 4-0 in the 2nd playing absolutely lights-out. It didn’t last, but he eventually made it to the decider and kept putting pressure on Ugo Carabelli, who eventually cracked. Monteiro grabbed his 9th Challenger title 3-6 6-4 6-4 and was very emotional after the win. Both finalists are expected to be in Buenos Aires now.
Lisbon
Flavio Cobolli has had a really consistent season, although without getting any spectacular results. That’s mostly due to losing all his five Challenger semifinals before Lisbon. These results still put him around No. 120 in the ATP Race and being on another nice streak recently (Tulln semifinal, Szczecin quarterfinal, Braga semifinal), he finally managed to get over the line with a final four win over Franco Agamenone. He only dropped one set on the way to the final (to Enrico Dalla Valle).
Before this year, Benjamin Hassan only had two Challenger semifinals to his name, but managed to blow it out of the park in 2023. Lisbon was already his 7th final-four appearance of the season with one previous final in Kozerki. Along the way, the Lebanese also basically ensured his Slam debut at the Australian Open qualifying. Just like Cobolli, he only dropped one set in the opening round (to Francesco Forti). In the quarterfinals, he avenged his Braga loss from the previous week to Oriol Roca Batalla.
It was a tight final with Hassan performing much better than in his only previous appearance at this stage. He was still a bit nervous with double faults in unfortunate moments. What separated the two were the 5-all games on the Lebanese’s serve, one of which he kind of gave away and the other was a big step up from his opponent. Cobolli won his 2nd Challenger title 7-5 7-5 and put himself right back into top 100 contention (44 points away live) and potentially the Next Gen Finals field. He plays Malaga next, while Hassan took a special exempt for Bratislava.
Tiburon
It’s been a huge breakthrough year for Adam Walton with the maiden title in Cary. Even though he didn’t instantly repeat it, he was certainly playing well enough for a next big run to be just around the corner. Indeed, the 24-year-old didn’t drop a set on the way to the final in Tiburon, only requiring one tie-break against Vasek Pospisil. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, he eliminated a couple of his countrymen – Tristan Schoolkate and Bernard Tomic.
Zachary Svajda won his maiden Challenger title in Tiburon the year before, adding another one to his tally less than a month ago in Cary. The 20-year-old exacted revenge on Christian Harrison for defeating him in his most recent appearance in Columbus, before dropping his only set on the way to the final to Steve Johnson. The semifinal was a rematch from Tiburon 2022 with Alexis Galarneau and Svajda’s record at this venue stood at 9-0 by the time he made it to the clash for the championship.
It was an excellent final display from Svajda. In their only previous meeting, it was Walton who came out on top 6-2 6-2. This time the American was ready with solid counter-punching, backhands down-the-line, and brilliant angle work on the passes. Svajda claimed his 3rd Challenger title 6-2 6-2 and defended his title from 2022. Both finalists are expected in Fairfield this week.
Challenger Tour magic:
Here's your fix if like me, you missed out on the man, the myth, the legend saving four match points against Denis Kudla last night (check out that 4th one especially, also his reaction).
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/V4vHqhf6Ja— Damian Kust (@damiankust) October 4, 2023
Events held this week:
- Malaga Open (Challenger 125, hard)
- Peugeot Slovak Open (Bratislava, Challenger 125, indoor hard)
- Shenzhen Longhua Open (Challenger 100, hard)
- Challenger de Buenos Aires (Challenger 100, clay)
- Taube – Grossman Pro Tennis Tournament (Fairfield, Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Roberto Carballes Baena, Bernabe Zapata Miralles, Daniel Elahi Galan, Albert Ramos-Vinolas (Malaga)
- Dominic Thiem, Dominic Stricker, Benjamin Bonzi, Tomas Machac (Bratislava)
- Thanasi Kokkinakis, Pedro Cachin, Rinky Hijikata, Marcos Giron, Nuno Borges (Shenzhen)
- Federico Coria (Buenos Aires)
First-round matches to watch:
Malaga
- (1/WC) Roberto Bautista Agut vs (WC) Gilles Arnaud Bailly
- (WC) Pablo Carreno Busta vs Arthur Cazaux
Roberto Bautista Agut is making his 1st Challenger appearance since Quimper 2013.
Bratislava
- Otto Virtanen vs (5) Liam Broady
- Luca Nardi vs (2) Dominic Stricker
Shenzhen
- (6) Aleksandar Kovacevic vs Philip Sekulic
- Denis Yevseyev vs (4/WC) Fabio Fognini
Buenos Aires
- (3) Facundo Diaz Acosta vs (WC) Federico Delbonis
- (5) Vit Kopriva vs Dalibor Svrcina
Facundo Diaz Acosta and Federico Delbonis met in the opening round of Campinas last week, the former winning 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Fairfield
- Bernard Tomic vs Steve Johnson
- Mark Lajal vs (7) Tennys Sandgren
Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran – USA TODAY Sports
