Alexander Blockx and Raphael Collignon delighted Belgian fans this week and strengthened their claims to potentially becoming the next players from their country to follow David Goffin or Zizou Bergs in breaking the Top 100. Meanwhile, two Americans claimed their maiden Challenger titles in Champaign (Ethan Quinn) and Drummondville (Aidan Mayo). Another one locked up the Australian Open wildcard (Nishesh Basavareddy), but couldn’t quite the trophy. Read up on last week’s action:
Kobe
Jurij Rodionov fell into a long losing streak in the summer, but has recovered from that patch with the Cassis final recently and the semifinal run in Seoul at the beginning of this month. He wasn’t quite done yet either, taking out top-seeded Buyunchaokete in the second round in Kobe. Sho Shimabukuro took him to a deciding tie-break at the last eight stage before Rodionov weathered the storm against Mattia Bellucci, who had been looking unplayable going into their match.
Alexander Blockx had a lot of points to defend in October/November, but started playing great in the Asian swing and suddenly earned himself a chance at making Australian Open qualifying. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran wasn’t around to stop him this time (like in Seoul and Matsuyama) with the 19-year-old defeating the 2019 and 2022 champion Yosuke Watanuki in a quarterfinal that went down to the wire. By beating Taro Daniel, he posted his first Top 100 win and overcame a 0-6 record in Challenger semifinals.
With Blockx, it almost felt like his game was maturing rapidly even over the course of this run. The Belgian’s serving was once again impeccable in the final with 88% points won on first delivery and just nine points lost on serve in total. He was so dominant in the final that he didn’t even celebrate when he claimed his 1st Challenger title 6-3 6-1. He has now secured his Australian Open qualifying spot (in 2024 he had a wildcard as the 2023 junior champion). Both players intend to keep playing in Japan this week in Yokkaichi.
Montevideo
Hugo Dellien suffered a few early exits in the previous three weeks, but the 2021 champion found his game just in time in Montevideo. Only Orlando Luz took the Bolivian to a tie-break in the second set but the 31-year-old was able to stay on target. He got pegged back a bit at the end but delivered a routine performance to defeat Federico Coria as well. Dellien reached his fourth final of the season, winning Iasi, Liberec, and Bonn in Europe this summer.
After winning Campinas Tristan Boyer was a bit unlucky with his next draws, facing Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Francisco Comesana in the first two rounds of his next two events. As luck would have it, the American drew Cerundolo again but was ready for the challenge. Gastao Elias served for a set three times against him and still ended up losing 5-7 5-7, while title favorites Thiago Monteiro and Camilo Ugo Carabelli had absolutely no chance with Boyer finding his clarity on the attack against them.
Boyer just wasn’t going to be denied this week. When he’s taking over points like that he becomes so hard to stop and he was literally breaking through the grip of Dellien on some of the most powerful shots. The Bolivian was struggling to find the response and while he briefly threatened a re-break in the second set, Boyer claimed his 3rd Challenger title (all this year) 6-2 6-4. He finds himself inside the Top 150 for the first time in his career. Both players have finished their seasons with the American initially on the Sao Paulo list but choosing to withdraw mid-week.
Champaign
Ethan Quinn reached the final in Cleveland in February, but was struggling to piece something together for months after that. Last year’s semifinalist landed a tricky opening draw in Champaign against top seed Adam Walton, but his clean victory was a sign of things to come. Quinn ended up defeating four opponents in a row without dropping more than four games in a set and getting broken only twice to make the second Challenger final of his career.
Nishesh Basavareddy came into the week intending to fight for the USTA Australian Open wildcard and after one round everything was clear – he needed to make the final to get it. As it turned out the leader of the challenge Christopher Eubanks fell before they were supposed to play in the quarterfinals, which didn’t impact the scenarios in any way. Basavareddy just had to beat a different set of opponents, wasting no time demolishing Govind Nanda and Eliot Spizzirri to secure his Grand Slam main draw debut.
It was like Basavareddy gave all he had to get that wildcard and almost forgot there was still a final to play. He also had a medical timeout for a hip issue in the second set and was struggling to serve properly. But for what it’s worth he was still causing problems in the opener and Quinn showed a lot of resilience to get out of a couple of 0-40 deficits. The 2023 NCAA champion saved all 10 break points to claim his 1st Challenger title 6-3 6-1. He ends the season by securing an Australian Open qualifying spot, while Basavareddy will chase Next Gen Finals qualification at the two Challenger 50 events in Mexico.
Drummondville
Chris Rodesch has been on fire since wrapping up his college career for the University of Virginia, picking up 5 ITF Tour titles before making his first Challenger quarterfinal in Charlottesville. Despite facing top-seeded James Duckworth in the opening round, the 23-year-old came back from 1-5 15-40 in the opening set to eventually get the upset. That fired him up for the rest of the week, including an impressive win over 2-time champion this year James Kent Trotter.
Aidan Mayo didn’t have it that much easier in his opener with No. 2 seed Aleksandar Kovacevic, who ended up retiring after going down a break in the decider. While Mayo was already out of the USTA Australian Open wildcard challenge, it was still massive for him to win consecutive matches for the first time since August. He took out home crowd favorite Alexis Galarneau and then Patrick Zahraj from a set down to make his first final of the season.
What most players do when facing Mayo (pressuring the one-hander) wasn’t really working out for Rodesch in the final. The Luxembourg native was a little edgy and tense, struggling to approach and wrap up points at the net with his usual efficiency. It was actually his skills of turning defense into offense that were proving to be significantly more important as he took the second set. But Mayo landed an early break in the decider and held on to claim his 1st Challenger title 6-3 3-6 6-4. Both finalists are signed up for the two Challenger 50 events coming up in Mexico.
Lyon
Raphael Collignon made the final in his most recent appearance in Bratislava, winning three consecutive matches from a set down. That’s exactly the spirit in which the Belgian approached his Lyon campaign as well, surviving a match like that right away against Titouan Droguet. But the key win for the week was the way he dispatched top-seeded Borna Coric in the quarterfinals after another indoor attritional battle. Collignon made his 4th Challenger final of the season, all since August.
Calvin Hemery took a brief detour from the indoor season by going to Brazzaville for the Challenger 50 in Congo and suffered a disappointing exit in the quarterfinals to Eliakim Coulibaly. Now back in France, he got through deciding set tie-breaks against Denis Yevseyev and Loann Massard to make it to the final four. By that point it seemed like Joao Fonseca would likely take the title, but Hemery was able to get the upset in the semifinals.
Hemery is still looking for his 2nd Challenger title (Tampere 2017) and had already lost 7 finals in a row going into Lyon (1-8 overall final record). Perhaps there’s a mental block there, but it was never evident against Collignon as the Frenchman just got outplayed from start to finish. Without posing any threat on return, he would eventually get coaxed into errors as the opponent got comfortable in his usual brand of physical indoor tennis. Collignon claimed his 2nd Challenger title 6-4 6-2 and finds himself just a little over 100 points away from the Top 100. He will wrap up his season in Rovereto, while Hemery takes some rest before returning in Maia.
Events held this week:
- Citta’ Di Rovereto (Challenger 100, indoor hard)
- Il Montemar Challenger ene Construccion (Challenger 75, clay)
- Torneo Internacional Masculino de Tenis Ano 7 / Engie Open (Sao Paulo, Challenger 75, hard)
- Yokohama Keio Challenger (Challenger 75, hard)
- Partners Open Puerto Vallarta (Challenger 50, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Borna Coric (Rovereto)
- Fabio Fognini, Sumit Nagal (Montemar)
- Aleksandar Kovacevic (Sao Paulo)
- Mattia Bellucci (Yokohama)
First-round matches to watch:
Rovereto
- (4) Raphael Collignon vs Daniel Masur
- (WC) Jacopo Berrettini vs Federico Arnaboldi
Montemar
- (4) Francesco Passaro vs Nicolai Budkov Kjaer
- (PR) Kimmer Coppejans vs (8) Vilius Gaubas
- Edas Butvilas vs (2) Sumit Nagal
Kimmer Coppejans is on a 20-match win streak after capturing four consecutive ITF titles in Monastir (two at the M15 level and two M25s).
Sao Paulo
- (1) Aleksandar Kovacevic vs (ALT) Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida
- Bernard Tomic vs Gonzalo Bueno
Yokohama
- Matej Dodig vs Nikoloz Basilashvili
- (7) Jurij Rodionov vs (WC) Rei Sakamoto
Puerto Vallarta
- Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez vs (ALT) Ernesto Escobedo
- Aidan Mayo vs (2) Aziz Dougaz
Main Photo Credit: Imago Images David Pintens
