Adrian Andreev was the only maiden champion on the Challenger Tour this week, becoming the 6th Bulgarian to clinch a title at this level. Gabriel Debru picked up his second trophy in two months when he won Como and Manacor featured an exciting final battle between Duje Ajdukovic and Matteo Gigante. Read up on last week’s action:
Como
Gabriel Debru won his maiden Challenger title in Troyes in July and followed it up with a 25K ITF title in Uriage. His next two appearances at the higher level didn’t go as planned though and it appeared that he had already lost that form. The 18-year-old did well to turn things around in Como with wins over experienced players like Benjamin Hassan and Stefano Travaglia. Kei Nishikori didn’t step out onto the court for their quarterfinal match due to shoulder pain.
Former junior No. 9 Ignacio Buse has been slowly but surely making progress all year and after making his first Challenger semifinal in Salzburg, he went on to reach his maiden final at this level in Como. The Peruvian started by demolishing former Roland Garros semifinalist Marco Cecchinato and went on to post wins from a set down against Valerio Aboian and Alex Molcan, who was returning to the circuit after a two-month break.
Debru was destroying Buse in the opening set, but unexpectedly his energy level dipped a lot in the second. Buse started feeling a lot more confident in the rallies and it wasn’t until the decider that the Frenchman found some energy to fight again. Something that was consistently true was that aggression was yielding him the best results and he found a nice balance of attacking and grinding in the last few games, taking a stunning championship point with a drop volley and his 2nd Challenger title 6-1 2-6 6-3. Both finalists are now headed to Genoa.
Manacor
Duje Ajdukovic had his breakout ATP Tour run in Bastad in July, but lost 3 of his last 4 matches. In Mallorca, the Croat had to be on top of his game early with Rafa Nadal Academy prospect Martin Landaluce awaiting him in the opening round before a meeting with a legend from his country, Marin Cilic, was on the horizon. Ajdukovic defeated both with a very clean, composed performance over one of his idols (who was making his first Challenger appearance since 2012). The 23-year-old went on to make his first final since Quimper in January.
With the way he started his season, Matteo Gigante could have been thinking of a Top 100 campaign but then didn’t produce any notable results in the spring or most of the summer. But after losing in US Open qualifying round one, it was time to hit back. The Italian seems to love the Spanish islands with previous titles in 2022 and 2023 in Tenerife. His run started a bit quietly, but there was nothing timid about his semifinal win over the in-form Jerome Kym, from 2-5 and match point down in the deciding set.
Gigante took the opening set and it felt like a matchup where he doesn’t really need to push himself, instead spreading the ball around the court will probably be enough. Some errors crept into his game shortly though and Ajdukovic was quick to take advantage. Just like the entire week, he played a pretty controlled version of his game, both emotionally and tennis-wise. It led him to his 3rd Challenger title 4-6 6-3 6-4 and he now finds himself about 30 points away from the Top 100 live. Both players will play a Challenger this week: Ajdukovic in Istanbul, Gigante in Cassis.
Porto
Adrian Andreev missed out on US Open qualifying, but with a big run in Porto he might give himself a head start in working towards the Australian Open. The Bulgarian made his maiden Challenger final in Zadar earlier this year, losing to Jozef Kovalik. This time he was extremely clean in his first four matches with only Daniel Cukierman taking him to a tie-break. In the second round, Andreev handled the ever-dangerous Mate Valkusz who was returning from injury.
Carlos Taberner made back-to-back Challenger finals earlier this month, losing to Vilius Gaubas in Cordenons and beating Santiago Rodriguez Taverna in Todi. After a week of rest, the Spaniard continued his brilliant form in Porto. He defeated last year’s Roland Garros juniors champion Dino Prizmic in the quarterfinals before prevailing with a wild 5-7 6-0 6-0 scoreline over Rodriguez Taverna in a rematch for their recent Todi final. By the time he played Andreev, he was on a 9-match win streak.
The first half-hour of the final was a gritty contest with both players struggling to take risks and whoever did was usually the one losing the point. But Andreev’s easier forehand acceleration was something Taberner couldn’t match and soon enough that started proving decisive. In a pretty surprising turn of events, the Bulgarian won the last 11 games to claim his maiden Challenger title 6-3 6-0. He is the 6th Challenger Tour champion from his country (4 – Dimitrov, Stanoytchev, 2 – Kuzmanov, 1 – Andreev, Traykov, Velev). Taberner plays Seville next, while Andreev will travel to Genoa.
Zhangjiagang
Mark Lajal was 4-6 3-5 down against Philip Henning in the opening round, but found his best aggressive tennis in these key moments as the South African didn’t have the weapon to put him away. It turned out to be such a key win for the Estonian with him dominating all the other opponents faced on the way to a first Challenger final since June 2023. Lajal missed US Open qualifying but this run puts him in a good position to fight to make the Australian Open.
Yasutaka Uchiyama lost to Buyunchaokete in the opening round at US Open qualifying and came to Zhangjiagang where he won all the way back in 2018. The Japanese earned a couple of quick wins at the beginning of the event with Yuta Shimizu forced to retire against him before he got tested by Tung-Lin Wu and Seong-chan Hong. Against the latter he missed a match point in the second set, but came back strong to make the final after the South Korean retired at 0-4 in the decider.
Lajal took the opening set despite going down a break at first, but his game soon started breaking down a bit with the pressure coming from Uchiyama. The Japanese was serving great with 12 aces and 40/45 points on the first delivery. Along with the youngster becoming progressively more erratic, it was enough for the 2018 champion to triumph in Zhangjiagang again, claiming his 7th Challenger title 6-7 6-2 6-2. It stabilizes his Top 200 position as well. Next up for both players was supposed to be the Shanghai Challenger, but Uchiyama decided to take the week off and rest.
Challenger Tour magic:
And what a championship point!
📷: @ATPChallenger https://t.co/1kidZY1Bjj pic.twitter.com/UTyvATArtp— Damian Kust (@damiankust) September 1, 2024
Events held this week:
- AON Open Challenger (Genoa, Challenger 125, clay)
- LX Copa Sevilla (Seville, Challenger 125, clay)
- NO OPEN powered by EVN (Tulln, Challenger 100, clay)
- Road to the Rolex Shanghai Masters (Challenger 100, hard)
- Cassis Open Provence by Cabesto (Challenger 75, hard)
- Istanbul Challenger TED Open (Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Thiago Seyboth Wild, Thiago Monteiro, Jaume Munar (Genoa)
- Roberto Carballes Baena, Federico Coria, Daniel Altmaier (Seville)
- Damir Dzumhur (Istanbul)
First-round matches to watch:
Genoa
- Dmitry Popko vs (4) Daniel Elahi Galan
- (6) Francesco Passaro vs Federico Arnaboldi
- Gabriel Debru vs (2) Thiago Monteiro
Seville
- (7) Vilius Gaubas vs Santiago Rodriguez Taverna
- (5) Alexander Ritschard vs Pedro Cachin
Tulln
- (1) Vit Kopriva vs Jan Choinski
- Max Houkes vs (2) Jerome Kym
Shanghai
- (WC) Yibing Wu vs (6) Shintaro Mochizuki
- Egor Gerasimov vs (4) Coleman Wong
- Mark Lajal vs (2) Terence Atmane
Cassis
- Antoine Bellier vs (3/WC) Richard Gasquet
- (6) Ugo Blanchet vs (WC) Marin Cilic
Istanbul
- (1) Damir Dzumhur vs Ricardas Berankis
- (5) Hamad Medjedovic vs Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez
Main Photo Credit: Sarasota Herald-Tribune/USAToday Sports
