Only Antarctica was left without representation on the Challenger Tour this week. We saw remarkably dominant performances with Roman Safiullin crushing everyone in Bratislava, while Federico Agustin Gomez regained his summer form in Guayaquil. Thanasi Kokkinakis demolished his opponent in the Sydney final, while James Kent Trotter produced some monstrous serving to beat the two young American talents in Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy back-to-back. Here’s a look back at last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Bratislava
Safiullin was pushed by the winner of M25 Trnava from the week before, Milos Karol, in the opening round. It easily could have gone three but the Russian stood strong and started dominating the rest of his opponents in Bratislava. Despite facing such quality indoor players as Marc-Andrea Huesler or Aslan Karatsev, it took until the semifinals for someone to break his serve. That edge for Kei Nishikori didn’t last long either and soon enough Safiullin increased his Challenger win streak to nine (along with the Cary title).
Raphael Collignon had been a bit like a fish out of the water of late, struggling indoors and taking just two games off Marton Fucsovics at the ATP 250 in Antwerp. The Belgian had to pick himself up quickly with how stacked the Bratislava draw was and made it through the qualifying, before going on an incredible run of four three-set wins. Against Emilio Nava he had to save a match points, while Gabriel Diallo and Dino Prizmic both led him 6-3 3-1. But Collignon stood strong and made his first Challenger final off-clay.
Collignon tried his best not to make this one a victory lap, but it was always going to be an uphill battle. Safiullin’s beast mode continued despite the Belgian’s best efforts and some remarkable points that were greatly appreciated by the crowd. Fighting off a few break points in the second set wasn’t enough and eventually Safiullin claimed his sixth Challenger title 6-3 6-4, winning his 10th Challenger match in a row. He is expected to appear in the ATP 250 in Belgrade, while Collignon sits this week out and should return in Lyon.
Seoul
Taro Daniel made a huge step towards trying to finish in the top 100 by winning Taipei the week before Seoul. The Japanese had been on a losing run for so long that he still needed to keep going to get closer to that goal. In a rematch for Taipei second round against Benoit Paire, he was forced to work much harder this time as he locked up a 7-5 in the deciding set win. That opener was the last time Daniel struggled on the way to the final, taking his remaining matches without any issues.
Nikoloz Basilashvili made the final in Murcia in March, but as usual wasn’t really able to start pulling off results like this consistently. Perhaps he can turn things around during the Asian swing as the Georgian kicked off his run with a great win over Terence Atmane. He was also able to take down the recent Nonthaburi champion Tung-Lin Wu and Hiroki Moriya. Basilashvili earned free entry to the final when Antoine Escoffier withdrew due to an abdominal issue.
Daniel went 5-2 up in the opening set, but ended up losing five games in a row. That was the moment when the match turned with Basilashvili enjoying lots of time on the ball in this matchup. The Georgian’s power ball-striking is still incredibly impressive and he was able to claim his sixth Challenger title 7-5 6-4, triumphing at this level for the first time since 2016. Both finalists are in the draw in Matsuyama this week, Daniel again as the top seed and Basilashvili thanks to a special exempt.
Charlottesville
After taking a couple of weeks off to get some rest, Nishesh Basavareddy surprisingly lost to Govind Nanda in the opening round in Sioux Falls. The 19-year-old wasn’t going to make the same mistake again and produced yet another run to make his third final in the last four events played. Recent University of Virginia graduate Chris Rodesch almost got to him in the quarterfinals, eventually going down 6-7(5) in the deciding set. Worth mentioning Rodesch was the first Challenger quarterfinalist from Luxembourg since Gilles Muller in 2015.
Kent Trotter has had his eyes set on an Australian Open qualifying ticket and likely secured it by making the final. He survived a deciding set tiebreak against last week’s Sioux Falls runner-up Colton Smith, before posting an impressive win over the second seed Learner Tien in the semifinals. He blasted 17 aces and took revenge for a loss in Bloomfield Hills earlier in the season. Trotter had recently defeated Basavareddy 6-7 6-1 6-0 at another indoor Challenger in Columbus.
In a similar vein to his win over Tien, Trotter just made a habit of making very resourceful players run out of answers. The serving was monstrous again with 16 aces in merely 10 games and Basavareddy sometimes felt like he needed to match that quick-hitting style of his opponent. That’s when the Trotter slice was helpful as well and the Japanese claimed his second Challenger title 6-3 6-4. He’ll break the top 200 as both finalists will now head to Knoxville.
Guayaquil
Agustin Gomez went a bit quiet since picking up two titles in three weeks in the summer, although he did grab his maiden ATP Tour win along the way (Chengdu over Alexandre Muller). In the first three South American appearances he only picked up one win, turning the corner in Guayaquil with a tricky win over Mathys Erhard in the opening round. By the time he made the semis, Gomez was unplayable again. Roman Andres Burruchaga only managed three games against him in a beatdown win for the 27-year-old.
Tomas Barrios Vera was kinda in a similar boat with two brilliant weeks in the summer (one of them when he finished runner-up to Gomez in Trieste) and not that much traction since. On top of that, he had to start his campaign against 2023 runner-up Daniel Elahi Galan. Not only did he take the Colombian down in straights, he also went on to find his best form all of a sudden. Federico Coria was the only player to push him on the way to the final, Barrios Vera coming back from a set and a break down.
Gomez crushed Barrios Vera in the Trieste final in July and started similarly this time. He found that confidence from the summer again and was making the Chilean look stiff defensively with how powerful his shots are. Barrios Vera responded a little early in the second set, but was ultimately too outmatched and Gomez claimed his third Challenger title (all this season) 6-1 6-4. He will debut in the top 150 as both finalists keep on in the South American swing with Lima next up.
Sydney
Rinky Hijikata claimed the title in Playford the week before Sydney and kept going for another trophy despite basically locking up a top 100 finish. His path was very similar to the previous event with both tournaments featuring the top seed coming up against Emile Hudd, Masamichi Imamura, and Yuta Shimizu. The 23-year-old survived a marathon against Ryuki Matsuda in the opening round before beating the aforementioned Shimizu in a rematch for the Playford final.
Kokkinakis was supposed to be in Playford but withdrew last-minute. In Sydney, just like Hijikata he was outranking the rest of the field by about 100 spots and had to be considered one of the main title contenders. This was just his fourth Challenger appearance of the season as the Sarasota champion made the final without dropping a set, only needing one tiebreak each against his young compatriots Philip Sekulic and Tristan Schoolkate.
Hijikata’s attempt to go for back-to-back titles was very quickly halted by Kokkinakis. His compatriot was serving incredibly well on the day with 10 aces and only 8 points dropped on serve. Perhaps fatigued from his recent efforts, Hijikata was also struggling to make an impact off the ground with forehand errors all over the place. Kokkinakis won his seventh Challenger title 6-1 6-1, all but securing his top 100 finish. Both aren’t signed up for any more events this season, but the champion will be part of Australia’s squad during the Davis Cup Finals.
Brazzaville
Filip-Cristian Jianu took a wildcard to play the Challenger in Brazzaville with the 50 category looking like a great opportunity for him to bridge the gap. After all, the Romanian had already won five ITF titles this season and made his maiden Challenger final in Milan. Despite coming into this event on four losses in a row, he dominated his opponents on the way to the final and didn’t allow anyone more than four games in a set, getting broken only twice.
Gonzalo Oliveira won nine ITF titles in 2023, but just like most of his career taking that to the Challenger level was a struggle. Before Brazzaville, the 29-year-old was 0-6 in semifinals on the ATP Challenger Tour and hadn’t reached one since 2021. This event was going to be a huge opportunity for him and he converted it in style. First three matches weren’t a problem before Oliveira took down second seed Santiago Rodriguez Taverna 7-6 6-1 to break his semifinal streak.
Jianu’s solid defending turned out to be less of an issue than you’d think for Oliveira, who was slowly but surely breaking through with his lefty weapons. The Romanian tried to find some answers but would usually come up short when trying to take the initiative himself. Oliveria just played a very clean match and became the first player to claim a Challenger title representing Venezuela since Jimy Szymanski in 2000, picking up his maiden trophy 6-4 6-3. He will now play Helsinki on a special exempt, while Jianu will likely top the list at an M15 event in Antalya.
Events held this week:
- HPP Open (Helsinki, Challenger 125, indoor hard)
- Directv Open Lima (Challenger 75, clay)
- Knoxville Challenger (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- Unicharm Trophy Ehime (Matsuyama, Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Gabriel Diallo, Borna Coric, Otto Virtanen, Jacob Fearnley (Helsinki)
- Adam Walton (Knoxville)
- Francisco Comesana (Lima)
- Taro Daniel (Matsuyama)
First-round matches to watch:
Helsinki
- (1) Gabriel Diallo vs Henri Squire
- (ALT) Rudolf Molleker vs (3) Otto Virtanen
- Joao Fonseca vs (2) Borna Coric
Lima
- (1) Francisco Comesana vs (ALT) Tristan Boyer
- (3) Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs Federico Agustin Gomez
- Ignacio Buse vs (7) Juan Manuel Cerundolo
Knoxville
- (1) Adam Walton vs Brandon Holt
- Nishesh Basavareddy vs (WC) Colton Smith
- Ethan Quinn vs (5) Zachary Svajda
Matsuyama
- (1) Taro Daniel vs Jurij Rodionov
- (3) Chun-Hsin Tseng vs Coleman Wong
- Li Tu vs (4) Mackenzie McDonald
- (SE) Nikoloz Basilashvili vs (2) Mattia Bellucci
Main photo credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
