Jacob Fearnley won a crazy final in Rennes to pick up his third Challenger Tour title of the season; Learner Tien’s win rate is similarly incredible after his success in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Vit Kopriva went one step further in Szczecin than in 2023, and Dobrich featured in the 10th all-Dutch final in ATP Challenger Tour history. Read up on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Szczecin
Andrea Pellegrino has these 2-3 weeks every year when he’s almost unbeatable and in 2024 he had to wait all the way until September to find that peak mode again. Second round against Gianluca Mager ended up going to a deciding set tie-break, but after that the Italian really fired up to beat fourth seed Daniel Altmaier and go on an incredible run of 7 games won in a row against Gerard Campana Lee to make his first final since October 2023.
Vit Kopriva was the runner-up in Szczecin last year, enjoying a great September with over 200 points earned. This time, things weren’t going so smoothly with the Tulln title defense falling apart in the opening round (to eventual champion Jan Choinski), but he managed to defend his points in Poland with some crazy wins. He beat Alexey Vatutin from 2-4 15-40 down in the 3rd set before eliminating Federico Coria in a 2023 final rematch 5-7 7-5 7-6, saving 5 match points from 2-5 in the decider.
The last two days in Szczecin were very windy, and that usually doesn’t suit Kopriva’s game, with his flatter strokes requiring precise timing. But his determination to keep going was very visible as he attacked Pellegrino from the get-go. Both players were struggling in the wind, but he was the one making all the plays. Kopriva claimed his 4th Challenger title 7-5 6-2 and defended plenty of the points he gained last September. Both players were supposed to head to Bad Waltersdorf next, but the runner-up opted to withdraw.
Rennes
Jacob Fearnley lost in the opening round of US Open qualifying to Paul Jubb with an injured wrist. It wasn’t clear if he was going to be right back in his best form in Rennes and the 37-minute win over Benoit Paire certainly didn’t make it any clearer. But after dropping the opening set 1-6 against Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg, he went on to find his game there and then didn’t even give a chance to Adrian Mannarino and Harold Mayot.
Quentin Halys found some great form around Wimbledon when he qualified to make the third round before reaching the final at the ATP 250 in Gstaad. Expectations were high at the start of the indoor swing, and the Frenchman managed to deliver despite dropping his opening set of the week to Martin Damm. He was never close to getting broken there, though, and won the next five tie-breaks he played in Rennes to make his first final at the Challenger level since June 2023 in Blois.
Halys dominated the opening set 6-0, rushing Fearnely endlessly with the Brit struggling to get his serving rhythm going. It eventually became a battle, though, and he missed 2 match points at 6-5 40-15 on return in the second set, before finally being the first player to break Halys all week. The twists and turns weren’t done yet as Fearnley needed 7 match points to claim his 3rd Challenger title 0-6 7-6 6-3, having to save three break points after the initial six chances to end this affair. He jumps to No. 129 in the ATP Rankings despite missing half the season due to college. He decided to withdraw from Saint-Tropez next week and will be back in Orleans, just like Halys.
Guangzhou
Christopher O’Connell was struggling with a shoulder injury over the summer and didn’t get his form back until the US Open where he defeated Nicolas Jarry and Mattia Bellucci to make the third round, losing to eventual champion Jannik Sinner. The Asian swing has been a good hunting ground for him in the last few years with titles at 2022 Yokohama and 2023 Shanghai. The top seed only dropped one set on the way to another final (against Radu Albot).
Sho Shimabukuro won the title in Shanghai the week before Guangzhou and wasn’t dealt an easy draw with Maxime Cressy in the opening round. Against Yan Bai he was almost completely out of energy before saving 5 match points to come back from 3-6 3-5 down (the Chinese retired at the start of the decider). One day of rest before the quarterfinals allowed Shimabukuro to recover as he went on to beat Terence Atmane and Luca Nardi, getting his win streak up to 9.
Shimabukuro came out with a very aggressive mindset and completely overwhelmed O’Connell in the opening set. The Australian’s job was to start holding and stay patient to wait for his opponent to drop that level. He eventually did with a weaker game at 5-6 in the 2nd set, but the decider was similarly difficult, and it took until 5-all in the tie-break for Shimabukuro to make one small error. O’Connell claimed his 6th Challenger title 1-6 7-5 7-6 with both finalists heading to the ATP 250 event in Chengdu next.
Las Vegas
Tristan Boyer‘s form has picked up in the last few weeks, and even in the US Open doubles, he made the third round alongside Emilio Nava. In Las Vegas, he had to pull off three wins from a set down to make the final. Andres Martin even had a match point against him at 6-5 40-30 in the 3rd set, but Boyer went after his +1 forehand, and the opponent didn’t make the pass. Similarly tough was his semifinal against Karue Sell, with the American keeping his aggressive attitude when it mattered.
Learner Tien lost in the opening round of the US Open to Arthur Fils, but it didn’t derail him from his incredible form over the whole season. By the time he made the Las Vegas final, his win/loss record went up to 43-7. He dropped the opening set of the week to Alex Rybakov, but came back strong and was relatively untroubled until the semifinals against Abdullah Shelbayh. In a fun matchup of the two creative young lefties, Tien prevailed 6-4 in the deciding set.
Boyer came out hitting well with his all-out attack style again, getting himself to a 5-3 lead. Even with such aggression from the get-go, you could say he got impatient, though, and you have to redline to beat Tien like this due to his speed, counter-punching skills, and ability to keep the ball in uncomfortable spots. For about a set and a half, the underdog was right with him again, though, but he grew very frustrated when he couldn’t keep the error count in check in another crucial moment. Tien claimed his 2nd Challenger Tour title 7-5 1-6 6-3 and jumped to No. 151 in the ATP Rankings. He’ll take a week off now before returning in Charleston, Boyer is playing in Columbus.
Dobrich
Guy Den Ouden had a college stint at Pepperdine but ended that relatively quickly to hit the professional tour. Since 2021 he has already picked up 11 ITF Tour titles with 5 of them coming in the 2023 campaign. This year has been all about seeking a Challenger breakthrough and Dobrich turned out to be the week. The Dutchman didn’t drop a set on the way to the final, only needing one tie-break against Frederico Ferreira Silva.
After a disastrous 2023 campaign that saw him pick up just four wins by late October, Jelle Sels has been in the rebuilding phase this season. It’s gone pretty well with four ITF finals (1-3 record), but it took until Dobrich for the Dutchman to grab his first Challenger quarterfinal this year. Sels was in a sticky situation against Francesco Maestrelli in the opening round, improving later in the week to beat home crowd favorite Dimitar Kuzmanov in the quarterfinals to make his first Challenger final in 23 months.
It was the 10th all-Dutch Challenger final in history and the 1st since Tallon Griekspoor beat Botic van de Zandschulp in Amersfoort in 2021. Both players were coming off two matches on Friday (quarterfinal + semifinal), but neither had a particularly physical task that day. Den Ouden had defeated Sels comfortably in June and you could see why in their Dobrich final. He was simply very dominant in all the patterns against his opponent’s one-hander, especially when he got to his inside-out FH. Den Ouden claimed his 1st Challenger title 6-2 6-3 and will debut in the Top 300. Both finalists are headed to Sibiu this week.
Events held this week:
- Bad Waltersdorf Trophy (Challenger 125, clay)
- Saint-Tropez Open (Challenger 125, hard)
- Columbus Challenger (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- Directv Open Cali (Challenger 75, clay)
- BCR Sibiu Open (Challenger 50, clay)
Top 100 players in action:
- Jaume Munar, Thiago Monteiro, Federico Coria, Thiago Seyboth Wild (Bad Waltersdorf)
- Thiago Agustin Tirante (Cali)
First-round matches to watch:
Bad Waltersdorf
- Jerome Kym vs (ALT) Filip Misolic
- Vilius Gaubas vs (2) Thiago Monteiro
Saint-Tropez
- Kamil Majchrzak vs (ALT) Borna Gojo
- Alexander Blockx vs Maks Kasnikowski
Columbus
- Eliot Spizzirri vs (6) Abdullah Shelbayh
- Ethan Quinn vs (3) Patrick Kypson
Cali
- Juan Bautista Torres vs Juan Carlos Prado Angelo
- (7) Enzo Couacaud vs Daniel Dutra da Silva
Sibiu
- (1) Stefano Travaglia vs Filip Jeff Planinsek
- Franco Agamenone vs (2) Timofey Skatov
