Kei Nishikori claimed his first title of the season in Helsinki this week and unless he picks up a wildcard for one of the next few events, he will just miss out on a Top 100 finish. Meanwhile, the USTA Australian Open wildcard challenge is heating up with two American champions this week – Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (Matsuyama) and Christopher Eubanks (Knoxville) – separated by just two points ahead of the final week. Read up on last week’s action:
Helsinki
Kei Nishikori played his fourth Challenger of the season, making the quarterfinals at least in his previous three appearances (Como, Genoa, Bratislava). With the stacked draw the Japanese was put in a very challenging section, having to defeat Jerome Kym and Jacob Fearnley just to make the semifinals. Despite failing to serve out the win and convert a match point in the second set against Max Hans Rehberg, he held on in the decider to go a step further than in Bratislava.
Luca Nardi had these two phenomenal runs in March with the win over Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells and then the Naples title. But since the Italian’s form has fallen apart completely and he’s still forced to fight hard to try to secure his Top 100 finish. The 21-year-old was on top of his game right away in Helsinki either, but slowly got into it and survived a tough moment in the semifinal against Denis Yevseyev. The Kazakh led 5-3 in the deciding set before Nardi advanced to his third final of the season.
Nardi started well in the final with his all-rounded game making it hard for Nishikori to generate an edge without overpressing. He was briefly up a set and a break before receiving a mid-game MTO on a nosebleed. While it would be unfair to say that decided the match, it was right then that the momentum shifted. Nishikori grew more and more confident and was finally causing issues for the Italian with his early timing, claiming his 8th Challenger title 3-6 6-4 6-1 (interestingly first trophy at this level outside North America). He’s 19 points away from the Top 100 and isn’t signed up for any more events this year, while Nardi intends to play Lyon and Rovereto.
Knoxville
Learner Tien keeps reaching Challenger quarterfinals left and right with an 11/11 rate of success this year. And he usually doesn’t stop there either. After losing to James Kent Trotter in the semifinals in Charlottesville, the 18-year-old was once again one of the favorites for this week’s event. Despite getting pushed to a deciding tie-break by Micah Brasswell, Tien kept going and soon defeated Nishesh Basavareddy in a rivalry that might just become a new American classic soon.
Christopher Eubanks since returning to Challengers after the US Open was more of a regular quarterfinalist than a title contender, even suffering an opening-round defeat to Patrick Zahraj in the opening round in Charlottesville. But the 2021 champion locked up his best run of the season here despite needing to deciding set tie-break wins to get there. These matches couldn’t be more different too with the serving contest against Johannus Monday and the double break lead he almost lost from against Eliot Spizzirri.
The match was progressing rapidly with quick games on serve for a set and a half. It was Eubanks who got a lot more work done on return, incorporating the slice well and staying pretty patient. But as things got closer to the finish line, his first serve percentage dipped and Tien kept saving match points left and right. Eubanks had to rediscover his clutch gene to take the fifth opportunity and claim his 4th Challenger title 7-5 7-6(9) after serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set. He finds himself just two points behind Moreno de Alboran in the USTA Australian Open wildcard challenge ahead of the final week. Both finalists are wrapping up their seasons in Champaign.
Lima
Elmer Moller traveled to South America the week before Lima and lost in the opening round in Guayaquil to Gonzalo Bueno. It didn’t take him long to eventually adjust to the conditions though and apply his game better at this event. In the second round, he once again took down Daniel Elahi Galan in a rematch of their recent Braga final before defeating fellow youngsters Vilius Gaubas and Henrique Rocha to advance to his fourth final of the season.
Vit Kopriva also began his South American swing in Guayaquil, getting one win before losing to Oriol Roca Batalla. The Czech’s level wasn’t as strong as Moller’s consistently in Lima, but he kept finding the extra gear when it mattered. That presented itself in the form of four consecutive three-set wins, three of them from a set down. And yet all of these wins were relatively controlled, the worst hole Kopriva dug himself out of being a 1-3 deficit in the decider against Marco Trungelliti.
On the way to the aforementioned Braga title, Moller also defeated Kopriva 6-3 6-1. But this match played out very differently. The Czech was much more comfortable in fast-paced backhand exchanges this time and was able to make his opponent feel like he had to force the issue. That’s not to say he wasn’t often doing that himself with openings down the line or trademark dropshots. Kopriva claimed his 5th Challenger title 6-3 7-6(3) after a thrilling finish where he had to hold on despite the Dane hitting backhand down-the-line winners for fun. Both finalists will appear in Montevideo this week.
Matsuyama
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran had reached four consecutive Challenger quarterfinals before Matsuyama, including the final in Villena. The American started his Asian swing by making the last eight stage in Seoul and was on fire immediately this week. He didn’t drop a set on the way to the final with only Alexander Blockx taking him to a tie-break in one set. With this run, Moreno de Alboran put himself in contention for the USTA Australian Open Wildcard Challenge.
Alex Bolt‘s run was a lot more out of the blue with the Australian not winning consecutive matches in any event since the grass season. He also suffered a disappointing exit in Sydney the week before Matsuyama, turning his form around with plenty of quality wins. The players he was taking down were some of the strongest Asian Swing performers of the last few seasons with Coleman Wong, Terence Atmane, or Yosuke Watanuki. Bolt made his second Challenger final of the season (Burnie in February).
Bolt had an electric start with his attacking lefty game putting a lot of pressure on Moreno de Alboran. It was tough to lock up a break though and the American was eventually able to start extending points well with good scrambling. The match had to be moved indoors at 6-5 in the opening set with heavy rain in the forecast for the rest of the day. While the opener was a bit crazy with both players having set points before the tie-break, the dynamics stayed the same in either conditions. Moreno de Alboran claimed his 3rd Challenger title 7-6(4) 6-2 and finds himself just 39 points away from the Top 100. He’ll try to get there in Kobe next week (Bolt will play the same event).
Events held this week:
- Hyogo Noah Challenger (Kobe, Challenger 100, indoor hard)
- Uruguay Open (Montevideo, Challenger 100, clay)
- Paine Schwartz Partners Challenger (Champaign, Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- Challenger Banque Nationale de Drummondville (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- ALL IN OPEN Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes (Lyon, Challenger 75, indoor hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Buyunchaokete, Taro Daniel (Kobe)
- Thiago Monteiro (Montevideo)
- Adam Walton (Champaign)
- James Duckworth, Aleksandar Kovacevic (Drummondville)
- Borna Coric (Lyon)
First-round matches to watch:
Kobe
- Sho Shimabukuro vs (8) Coleman Wong
- (3) Mattia Bellucci vs Yuta Shimizu
Montevideo
- Vit Kopriva vs (4) Camilo Ugo Carabelli
- (8) Juan Manuel Cerundolo vs Tristan Boyer
Champaign
- (1) Adam Walton vs Ethan Quinn
- Eliot Spizziri vs (4) Mitchell Krueger
Drummondville
- (1) James Duckworth vs Chris Rodesch
- Ryan Seggerman vs (6) Brandon Holt
Lyon
- (1) Borna Coric vs August Holmgren
- Dino Prizmic vs (4) Harold Mayot
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
