A pair of very familiar Challenger Tour champions claimed the titles at the 125 events in Santo Domingo and Vancouver this week. For Pedro Cachin it was already his fourth this year, Constant Lestienne grabbed his third in the span of less than two months. Tomas Machac joined the two Challenger machines with a win over Zhizhen Zhang in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. Read back on this week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Santo Domingo
Cachin hadn’t competed in a month (other than some league matches in Germany and Switzerland), but the Challenger juggernaut of 2022 was back at his best from the get-go in Santo Domingo. The green clay worked nicely for his serve and the attacking baseline game. Cachin dropped his only set on the way to the final to Tomas Martin Etcheverry, reaching his seventh championship match in the last ten events played at this level.
Marco Trungelliti has been riddled with health issues recently and only had one match under his belt since the French Open (round one loss at San Marino the week before). The Argentinian needed a run like this and didn’t drop a set along the way to the final, impressing especially on Saturday, when he had to beat both Roberto Carballes Baena and Daniel Elahi Galan due to rain delays. Trungelliti earned himself a chance of avenging a loss to Cachin in the final at Madrid earlier in 2022.
The whole tournament was filled with rain delays (or even thunderstorms) and the final was no different. After starting a couple of hours later than expected, there was a lot of waiting involved between the first and second sets. Eventually, Cachin came out victorious in a match that finished after 1am local time.
The 27-year-old claimed his sixth Challenger title 6-4 2-6 6-3. Since beating Dominic Thiem in the opening round at Marbella at the end of March, he’s got a 34-6 win/loss record on the ATP’s secondary circuit. He will now rest up before the US Open, while Trungelliti is forced to play the qualifying event.
Vancouver
By the time he reached the final, Lestienne had an 18-2 win/loss record since Wimbledon, only losing via retirement and when being extremely gassed in the Segovia final against Hugo Grenier. The run in Vancouver had him survive some very tough moments against Dominik Koepfer (facing break points at 5-7 5-5 down), but he was able to come out on top in three deciding sets – against the aforementioned German, Fernando Verdasco, and Ugo Humbert.
Arthur Rinderknech had to show his persistence even earlier in the tournament, fighting back from a set down against Alafia Ayeni and Elias Ymer. In the latter match, he saved three match points in the second set tie-break (ace and a couple of forced errors). Rinderknech’s level improved a lot as the week went on and he fended off Ricardas Berankis and Vasek Pospisil in straight sets. The event in Vancouver was the Frenchman’s fourth Challenger appearance of the year and he previously raised the title in Poznan.
Rinderknech dropped the first set 6-0, spraying forehand errors all over the place and receiving a medical timeout. He was able to raise his level though, finally building up some aggressive points and taking advantage of Lestienne dropping his focus. The 30-year-old’s counterpunching proved superior in the decider as he regained composure.
Lestienne won his fifth Challenger title (third over the past two months) 6-0 4-6 6-3. Despite being firmly inside the top 100, he’ll have to contest the US Open qualifying event. Rinderknech is scheduled to appear at Granby next week.
Grodzisk Mazowiecki
Zhang had a phenomenal post-Wimbledon clay-court swing, going 18-3 and winning his third Challenger title in Cordenons. The Chinese took it straight to hard courts and while it took him some time to find his range in matches against Maxime Janvier and Robin Haase, the 25-year-old never really got close to losing. A faster surface only amplified his hard-hitting style and the serve seemed to be becoming more and more potent by the minute.
Machac won every match in straights on the way to the final, although both Marko Topo and Skander Mansouri had the chance to serve out a set against him. The Czech started with two great wins over Miljan Zekic and Dan Added, but wasn’t really playing his best tennis in the subsequent two encounters. However, when faced with the possibility of dropping a set, he had the ability to go up a gear on both occasions and make sure he didn’t need to take the scenic route.
Zhang came out firing and put so much pressure on Machac, making the Czech look completely lost in the opener. He also used a couple of unexpected tactics like net rushing after his second serve to take advantage of his opponent’s passive returning position. Machac made great micro-adjustments though, moving into the court and standing up to Zhang’s power. The Chinese looked flustered when his initial gameplan didn’t work and had no idea how to continue about it.
Machac claimed his fourth Challenger title 1-6 6-3 6-2 and finds himself just 99 points away from the top 100. Both finalists will have a very short turnaround flying to the States for the US Open qualifying event.
Challenger Tour magic:
TWEENER. LOB. WINNER 🤯
How did 🇦🇷 @pecachin1 win that point against Giannessi this week?! 😱👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/AopQLOJG1L
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) August 20, 2022
My favorite shot from Kozerki this week (so far) – Janowicz's one-handed BH pass
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/Anxb3vJ8Ee— Damian Kust (@damiankust) August 18, 2022
Events held next week:
- Les Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby (Challenger 80, hard)
- Srpska Open (Banja Luka, Challenger 80, clay)
- IBG Prague Open by Moneta Money Bank (Challenger 50, clay)
- Bangkok Open 1 (Nonthaburi, Challenger 50, hard)
The Challenger 50 in Nonthaburi is the first tournament at this level in East Asia since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. More events are to follow in Japan and South Korea later this year. Nonthaburi will be hosting a Challenger 50 for three consecutive weeks.
Top 100 players in action:
- Arthur Rinderknech, Jiri Vesely (both Granby)
First-round matches to watch:
Granby
- (4) Stefan Kozlov vs Aidan McHugh
- Evan Zhu vs (5) Ugo Humbert
- Liam Draxl vs (3) Jordan Thompson
Banja Luka
- (PR) Jan Choinski vs (7) Lorenzo Giustino
- Luca van Assche vs (5) Otto Virtanen
- Sebastian Fanselow vs (2) Fabian Marozsan
Prague
- (1) Matteo Gigante vs Roman Andres Burruchaga
- (3) Vitaliy Sachko vs Murkel Dellien
- (6) Ergi Kirkin vs Lukas Rosol
- Marius Copil vs (2) Oleksii Krutykh
Nonthaburi
- (1) Alastair Gray vs Arthur Cazaux
- (4) Billy Harris vs Alibek Kachmazov
- (7) Nicola Kuhn vs Benjamin Lock
- Beibit Zhukayev vs Omar Jasika
Main photo:
Embed from Getty Images
