Thiago Agustin Tirante once again proved his expertise in altitude conditions by claiming the title at Mexico City. Meanwhile, the third time was the charm for Enzo Couacaud when it came to the Challenger finals in 2024. Nick Hardt got the Dominican Republic its first title at this level since 2017 and Damir Dzumhur dropped just four games in a clash of the top two seeds in Barletta. Read back on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Mexico City
Thiago Agustin Tirante was defending plenty of points during the altitude swing and needed big runs in that part of the season, as usual. After losing in the quarterfinals at San Luis Potosi to eventual champion Nicolas Mejia, he didn’t drop a set on the way to the final in Mexico City, only needing one tie-break against Bernard Tomic. In 2023, Tirante was the runner-up at this event, losing to Dominik Koepfer in three after going up a set and a break.
Alexis Galarneau was injured recently and only played two matches before this year’s altitude swing. On the Mexican clay, though, he came back to form right away with a quarterfinal appearance in San Luis Potosi and then the final run in Mexico City. He went 3-0 in tie-breaks across the first four matches, dispatching last week’s champion Mejia and big-hitters such as Maxime Janvier or Beibit Zhukayev to make his 4th Challenger final.
Galarneau was spraying errors left and right in the opening set, and in conditions like this, you usually can’t afford to get broken three times in one set. He started making it work later on, though, and was actually competitive until the end, even getting an early lead in the second. But once again, the double faults caught with him and Tirante at altitude just don’t give you much margin for error. The Argentinian claimed his 4th Challenger title (all at least 1400m above sea level) 6-1 6-3 and will next try to defend his title in Morelos. Galarneau is also part of that draw.
Barcelona
Bernabe Zapata Miralles was down to No. 143 in the ATP Rankings as the week began and sitting at a 3-10 win/loss record for the season. The Spaniard really needed a big run, and despite carrying a 0-4 record at this event going into this year’s edition, he managed to find just that with no sets dropped on the way to the final. Only Billy Harris and Lorenzo Giustino took him to a tie-break each, with Zapata Miralles winning two matches via retirement.
Nick Hardt played his only Challenger final in 2022 (Alicante, lost to Lukas Klein), and with his ranking drifting around 300 of late, it didn’t seem like another one was coming. The best Dominican Republic player kicked off this week with a fantastic upset over Quentin Halys, though, sort of taking his spot in the draw. Three wins later, including dangerous players like Valentin Royer or Javier Barranco Casano, the 23-year-old earned himself another shot at a Challenger title.
It was a breakfest in the opening set and while the Zapata Miralles hooked forehand would often look like the biggest shot on the court, he actually got a bit tense on that side under pressure. His opponent played some of his bravest tennis of the match to save break points at 5-4, and while the Spaniard fought back, it turned out the underdog had that extra gear he needed to find in the decider. Hardt claimed his first Challenger title 6-4 3-6 6-2 and has a real chance at making Roland Garros qualifying now. Both finalists will be in Madrid this week, the champion taking a special exempt.
Barletta
Harold Mayot started his season with a couple of Challenger semifinals, later trying himself out in plenty of ATP Tour events. After qualifying for Miami, he came to Barletta and found himself pretty dominant as the top seed, not dropping a set on the way to the final and only needing one tie-break (against Jacopo Berrettini in the semifinals). Mayot made a Challenger final for the third straight year, losing to Zsombor Piros at 2022 Tampere and Hamad Medjedovic at 2023 Mallorca.
Damir Dzumhur made it a final between the top two seeds in Barletta, dominating his opposition to a similar extent in the first three rounds. The Bosnian veteran also grabbed a couple of Challenger semifinals at the start of the season but was actually on a five-match losing streak by the time he entered this event. The only tough situation on the way to the clash with Mayot was when Dzumhur briefly fell a set and a break down to Timofey Skatov, coming back to win in three.
Mayot was trying his best to attack Dzumhur, often approaching the net on serve and not allowing the Bosnian to have much time to employ his variety. That wasn’t enough, though, and besides the 3-0 start in the second set, it was actually a pretty lopsided affair. Dzumhur extracted so many errors with his speed and variety, claiming his 9th Challenger title 6-1 6-3 to put himself not far away from the Top 100 of the ATP Race. He’ll play Split next, while the runner-up chose Madrid.
Florianopolis
Joao Lucas Reis da Silva made a Challenger Tour final for the third straight year after losing to Facundo Bagnis in Ambato and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida in Coquimbo. The Brazilian won three matches to start the year (Buenos Aires semifinal), then lost nine in a row, and reached a winning streak of four again by Sunday. Only Daniel Dutra da Silva was able to put him in trouble, but Reis da Silva recovered from losing the opening set 1-6 and beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the semifinals.
After losing to Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in the Sao Leopoldo final the week before, Enzo Couacaud wasted no time in going on yet another big run. The Frenchman wasn’t even taken to a tie-break by any of his opponents on the way to the championship match and was only broken twice in four matches, getting over 80% first serve points won every single time. Couacaud made his third final of the season already after Noumea (lost to Arthur Cazaux) and the aforementioned Sao Leopoldo.
Reis da Silva was fired up by the support of the home crowd, coming out with some red-hot hitting, just like in the past few matches. It wasn’t easy for Couacaud to contain that, but he began serving better in the second set and eventually found a few key backhand counters to take the second set. The Brazilian wasn’t going away, though, and it wasn’t until the deciding set tie-break that his error count finally went up as Couacaud claimed his 3rd Challenger title 3-6 6-4 7-6 to return to the Top 200. He chose to withdraw from Sarasota and will likely return in Ostrava in two weeks’ time, while Reis da Silva is taking one week off before Acapulco.
Events held this week:
- Head Busan Open (Challenger 125, hard)
- II Open Comunidad de Madrid (Challenger 100, clay)
- Split Open (Challenger 75, clay)
- Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open (Challenger 75, green clay)
- Morelos Open presentado por Metaxchange (Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Taro Daniel (Madrid)
- J.J. Wolf (Sarasota)
- Thiago Agustin Tirante, Rinky Hijikata (Morelos)
First-round matches to watch:
Busan
- (WC) Soon-woo Kwon vs (4) Mattia Bellucci
- (8) Coleman Wong vs Alexander Blockx
Madrid
- (1) Taro Daniel vs Giulio Zeppieri
- (5) Vit Kopriva vs (WC) Martin Landaluce
Split
- (1) Zsombor Piros vs Nerman Fatic
- (WC) Matej Dodig vs (7) Alex Molcan
Sarasota
- (1) J.J. Wolf vs Dmitry Popko
- Yibing Wu vs (3) Thanasi Kokkinakis
Morelos
- (1) Rinky Hijikata vs Alexis Galarneau
- (5) Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs (WC) Ernesto Escobedo
Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch – USA TODAY Sports
