Tomas Barrios Vera is in one of his classic hot streaks, winning Amersfoort right after making the Trieste final. August Holmgren was the only maiden champion this week, while Bu Yunchaokete showed he can overcome adversity better than he did across the last two weeks. Dimitar Kuzmanov was the other titlist on the Challenger Tour, picking up his 2nd trophy in Astana. Read back on last week’s action:
Amersfoort
Alexey Zakharov had been showing some signs of improvement since coming back from a two-year hiatus in the fall of 2023, but none were as clear as the run he pulled off in Amersfoort. The Russian posted two solid wins in the qualifying before eliminating home crowd favorites Jelle Sels and Deney Wassermann. That wasn’t enough for the 24-year-old yet as he delivered beatings to Daniel Rincon and Enrico Dalla Valle to make his first Challenger final.
Tomas Barrios Vera has been out of form for months before Trieste the week before Amersfoort, but he suddenly found it again. While his final against Federico Agustin Gomez was pretty much a no-show, it didn’t stop the Chilean from ripping through the draw in the Netherlands just a few days later. Even drawing the second seed Jurij Rodionov in the opening round didn’t slow him down with only 2022 quarterfinalist Max Houkes taking a set off him in the final four.
Barrios Vera might have given a no-show in the Trieste final the week before, but Amersfoort was a completely different story. From start to finish he was all over Zakharov with his flat-hitting aggression and never let the Russian get comfortable. He claimed his 4th Challenger title 6-2 6-1. Both finalists chose to withdraw from the Challenger events they were supposed to play this week – Barrios Vera in Tampere, Zakharov in Zug.
Granby
Bu Yunchaokete has been playing well since the start of the North American Challenger swing, but crumbled mentally after blowing leads against Learner Tien in Bloomfield Hills and Benjamin Bonzi in Winnipeg. This time the Chinese was simply more clinical about the advantages he was building up for himself, although he also needed to claw his way back into the match against Bruno Kuzuhara. The American already led 6-4 3-0 before Bu was able to produce the comeback.
Terence Atmane went out to Brandon Holt in the second round at Winnipeg to kick off the North American hardcourt swing. Seeded second in Granby, the Frenchman blasted through his first three opponents including a 6-1 6-0 dismissal of Tung-Lin Wu. It wasn’t until the semifinals that he got pushed by Yasutaka Uchiyama, staying in front in the decider though and putting pressure on the Japanese until he cracked. Atmane secured his first final in 10 months.
Bu’s physical grinding style was a problem for Atmane right away, but the Frenchman went big on the match point saves in set 2 and took it to a decider. The way that the Chinese overcame that disappointment was so different from his matches from the previous two weeks though. He just kept grinding at it and got rewarded with his 3rd Challenger title 6-3 6-7 6-4. Both finalists will appear in Chicago now. Atmane had to withdraw from Atlanta qualifying due to his Granby run, but grabbed a special exempt spot for the Challenger in Illinois.
Astana
Other than one big run to the semifinals in Mauthausen, Dimitar Kuzmanov has been struggling with his form this year and recently also suffered a calf injury that kept him out for a month. His ranking plummeted to World No. 356 in the meantime and the Bulgarian needed to be sharp in his first tournament back already. It wasn’t always pretty with the second-round match against net-rushing Egor Agafonov going to a deciding tie-break, but he managed to overcome adversity there and made his way into the final (his first in 13 months).
Saba Purtseladze won five ITF titles in the past three seasons (all in Sharm el Sheikh), being extremely dominant in some of the runs. The Georgian was still looking for his first Challenger main draw win before Astana despite his game being so top-heavy. Anyway, it was the first time he managed to get that form going at an event for this level as he took down four opponents in a row without dropping a set (or even four games in any set).
Purtseladze’s first serve was still doing enormous damage in the final, but the Georgian was struggling with his percentages. It wasn’t until deep in the second set that he started getting his first serve in rate up from about 40%. That put Kuzmanov in quite a solid position in the final and the Bulgarian took it 6-4 6-3 to claim his 2nd Challenger title (2021 Barcelona). He’s back in the Top 300 now as both finalists are supposed to appear in ITF events next week – Purtseladze on the same courts in Astana, Kuzmanov on clay in Bacau.
Pozoblanco
Antoine Escoffier broke through to the Challenger level pretty late in his career and you never know how many chances for a maiden Challenger trophy he can still get. The biggest one he missed in Segovia last year as he made his maiden final and lost to Pablo Llamas Ruiz. This year he seemed to be on the decline already, but took his chance as the top seed in Pozoblanco (a venue he enjoys, made the quarterfinals in 2022-23) to reach a Challenger final again.
August Holmgren is slowly making good progress after his college career at the University of San Diego. The Dane won a stacked ITF in Nottingham just before Pozoblanco, including wins over Jack Pinnington Jones or Kyle Edmund. It was the perfect momentum for the biggest Challenger run of his career as Holmgren only dropped one set on the way to his maiden final, coming back from a set down against Egor Gerasimov in the semifinals.
It was a pretty epic clash of styles in the final with Holmgren relentlessly attacking the net and smashing forehands, while Escoffier was trying to throw him off with all the touch and variety he possesses. The speedy Frenchman was on top at first, but soon enough he wasn’t able to track down all the big shots anymore and never really found the counter-punch later on. Holmgren held his nerve to claim his 1st Challenger title 3-6 6-3 6-4 with the dream of making US Open qualifying still alive if he can get on a run in Segovia. That’s the event Escoffier is playing this week as well.
Events held this week:
- Zug Open (Challenger 125, clay)
- Internazionali di Tennis Verona (Challenger 100, clay)
- Chicago Men’s Challenger (Challenger 75, hard)
- Tampere Open (Challenger 75, clay)
- Open Castilla y Leon (Segovia, Challenger 50, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Botic van de Zandschulp (Zug)
- Francisco Comesana (Tampere)
First-round matches to watch:
Zug
- Kamil Majchrzak vs Maks Kasnikowski
- (ALT) Jerome Kym vs (4) Juan Manuel Cerundolo
Kasnikowski and Majchrzak are meeting for the 3rd time in 2024 already. The younger of the Poles prevailed on the way to the Poznan title recently, while the former Top 100 player took him down at Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve in February.
Verona
- (1) Pedro Cachin vs (ALT) Francesco Maestrelli
- Samuel Vincent Ruggeri vs (4) Richard Gasquet
- (7) Alejandro Moro Canas vs Jacopo Berrettini
Maestrelli defeated Cachin to win his only Challenger title in Verona two years ago. Vincent Ruggeri and Gasquet are forming a rivalry in 2024 with the veteran Frenchman currently 2-1 up in the head-to-head (but lost the most recent match in Trieste).
Chicago
- Joao Fonseca vs Yuta Shimizu
- (WC) Learner Tien vs (2) Benjamin Bonzi
Tampere
- (1) Francisco Comesana vs Jiri Vesely
- Facundo Mena vs (3) Dmitry Popko
Segovia
- (1) Antoine Escoffier vs Iliyan Radulov
- Mohamed Safwat vs (2) Jules Marie
Main Photo Credit: IMAGO Images Felipe Zanca/Photosport
