For starters, it’s important to note that it’s basically impossible to prepare a list like this for the ATP Challenger Tour. With a record-breaking 207 events in 2024, it’s not like on the main circuit, where you probably watched all the biggest classics. A list like this will, by definition, be very subjective, with personal experience often coming into play. Don’t be surprised then that two of the seven matches I picked will be ones I saw live.
Why only seven? My 2023 list had 10 selections, but this time, I figured there would be a pretty large quality gap between these seven and positions 8-10, making this a bit cleaner if I just stick to the lower number.
Best ATP Challenger Tour Matches of the 2024 Season
7. Jiri Vesely vs Gauthier Onclin – Prague Final – 6-2 3-6 7-6(3)
Among the many Challenger finals that went the distance this year, this is one of the standouts. Jiri Vesely was 1-11 for the season going into this event, suddenly winning a thriller against Alejandro Moro Canas in the opening round and showing he’s still got game left. The first set of the final should have ended 6-1, with Gauthier Onclin recovering from a 0-40 deficit. It seemed minuscule at the time, but that small fightback allowed him to calm his nerves and start turning the match around.
Vesely’s fitness has been an issue for years now, but the early flat aggression he can produce on serve/return can still be overwhelming. It was crucial for Onclin to start challenging that and he was much more in his element in the second set. But the part that made the match special was the last 20-30 minutes, with the Belgian desperately trying to cling on. Vesely was serving for the match at 5-3, then had three match points on return at 6-5.
Onclin kept fighting, but it was the home crowd favorite stepping up in the deciding set tie-break. He opened up the court with backhands down-the-line and even had this 5-1 point with footwork you hadn’t seen from him in years. I was at another Challenger in Mauthausen while this match was being played and I spent more time in the “press office” (most of the week that was just me sitting at a desk in the hall) watching this on my laptop than on the actual court where Lucas Pouille was beating Jozef Kovalik basically at the same time.
Prague 2 F: J. Vesely’s point to 6-6(6-1, initial MP), 3rd set TB. pic.twitter.com/1ZZWb4kkfy
— eretzsportmed3 🎥 (@eretzsportmed3) May 12, 2024
6. Kamil Majchrzak vs Pablo Carreno Busta – Poznan R2 – 7-5 4-6 7-6(2)
This is one of the two matches on the list I saw live and somehow they both involve Pablo Carreno Busta. It was played right after his return from injury with the win over Dmitry Popko in the previous round being his first of the season. Taking the court against him was Kamil Majchrzak, who was another comeback story of 2024. After a no significant fault or negligence doping suspension kept him off the court in 2023, the Pole was already back to a solid level and had just won a Challenger in Bratislava.
The match was played over two days with rain ending the action for the day at 5-4 in the opening set. Majchrzak would go on to take it, but the 2015 Poznan champion started fighting back and eventually seemed like the much fresher player at the start of the decider. At 1-4 and double break down in the third, the Pole’s fate looked sealed. He wasn’t fully fit either – later in the week he would eventually lose to Maks Kasnikowski and a left wrist injury, leaving him unable to hit through his trademark backhand.
But on that day, he was intent on going down swinging and suddenly upped the intensity on Carreno Busta once more. The rest of the deciding set was the part that made this match stand out and the fightback from Majchrzak was incredibly compelling to watch in person. It was one of these encounters that don’t just leave your head right away and I found myself unable to focus on the next matches that day, still coming back to some of the points and moments from the decider.
5. Hady Habib vs Camilo Ugo Carabelli – Temuco Final – 6-4 6-7(3) 7-6(2)
The final in Temuco was the penultimate match of the ATP Challenger Tour season. How crazy is it that it makes the list being the 206th final played this year, right before Mats Rosenkranz defeated Gonzalo Oliveira in Manzanillo? It almost ended in a relatively lop-sided straight-set victory too. Until 6-4 5-4, Camilo Ugo Carabelli had no chance of touching Hady Habib’s serve. The Lebanese was hitting aces in the double-digits in every match all week and seemed like he would just keep that up to take the title.
History was on the line too with Habib looking to become the first player from his country to win a Challenger singles title (he had lost to Alejo Lorenzo Lingua Lavallen in Santos earlier this year and his Davis Cup teammate Benjamin Hassan is 0-3 in finals). It was also his last chance to get into Australian Open qualifying, while Ugo Carabelli had already secured his Top 100 finish and main draw in Melbourne. For a while, the Argentinian was playing as if he was satisfied with that and his head wasn’t fully in it. But all it took was one match point saved and the fighting spirit he’s usually known for came back.
In the end, dropping the second set kind of made Habib’s win even sweeter. Instead of a very controlled performance with unplayable serving, he had to erase a deficit early in the decider and prove he could also win this match off the baseline. That’s because his first delivery wasn’t granting him that many free points anymore. He showed a lot of resilience, not getting derailed by a couple of controversial calls against him in the second set tie-break (including a foot fault on a second serve). And in the end, Habib played brave tennis in the next breaker to claim a win that clearly meant a lot.
4. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer vs Pablo Carreno Busta – Montemar R2 – 6-7(2) 6-4 6-4
This is the other match that I saw in person and what an arrival of a young talent that was. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer won Wimbledon boys’ singles and Roland Garros boys’ doubles in 2024, also becoming the sparring partner at the ATP Finals just a week before Montemar. This event was only his second Challenger appearance and he picked up his first win over Francesco Passaro in the opening round. But the quality of play in that match was completely different from what he was able to produce against Pablo Carreno Busta.
Against Passaro, Budkov Kjaer would mostly rely on his serve +1 game, but in the second round he was also able to consistently trade groundstrokes with the Spaniard and look for his opportunities to set up powerful winners much more efficiently. The upset seemed on the cards but the youngster suffered a bit of a forehand breakdown late in the opening set and wasn’t able to shake himself out of it. Considering all the experience gap between him and the former World No. 10, it looked likely that this is where Carreno Busta would run away with the match.
But eventually, it was another story of resilience as Budkov Kjaer just kept coming. This affair lasted almost three hours and any fitness questions were also swiftly answered by the 18-year-old, who eventually produced a stunning victory. Ranking-wise it’s not the biggest win of his career so far (that came over Passaro a day earlier), but it certainly is huge in any other category. If the Norwegian continues to develop at a very strong pace, this will be one of the matches we’ll remember as crucial steps in his progress.
3. Otto Virtanen vs Benjamin Bonzi – Brest Final – 6-4 4-6 7-6(6)
Lots of good stories here – Otto Virtanen seeking to break the Top 100 and maintain his perfect record in Challenger finals (all indoors), while Benjamin Bonzi was on the verge of producing his 15th win in 20 days. The Frenchman had already completed that incredibly tough feat of winning 3 Challengers in 3 weeks in 2021 and after saving a match point against Alibek Kachmazov in the semifinals, he was ready to give it his all before finally enjoying some rest (not much though, he won his maiden ATP Tour title in Metz just two weeks after this final).
And this one just ended up being a very high-quality match with two indoor experts going at each other in a high-pressure, high-stakes matchup. Virtanen is known for his level and mental engagement fluctuating throughout the match and he had his fair share of moments when the shot selection wasn’t up to par, allowing the tireless Bonzi to start dominating and eventually get to serve for yet another incredible win at 5-4 in the deciding set.
Unexpectedly, it was the Frenchman who cracked under pressure despite getting so used to the winning feeling over the previous three weeks. Both match points he had on serve were quite winnable and he also wasn’t able to keep himself in the rally on another opportunity in the tie-break. By that point Virtanen was completely locked in and was able to grab a very memorable win, breaking the Top 100 and eventually securing his Australian Open main draw spot. As mentioned earlier, Bonzi didn’t waste much time coming back to winning ways.
2. Joao Fonseca vs Martin Landaluce – Lyon QF – 6-2 3-6 7-6(9)
Matches like this are sort of what you watch the Challenger Tour for. Two exciting young prospects (2023 US Open junior champion vs 2022 US Open junior champion!) coming up against each other and the encounter delivers. Similar to a couple of previous selections on this list, for a while this was seemingly heading towards a pretty comfortable win for one of the parties. Joao Fonseca went up a set and a break and was playing a more dynamic, versatile brand of tennis.
But all it took was one crack for Martin Landaluce to get himself into the groove and start rolling. After all, matches between youngsters are often like that with neither fully knowing how to handle complicated situations within thrillers. This list is heavily dominated by deciding set tie-breaks and this one was probably the best of the lot. All the incredible shot-making from both players culminated in a brilliant showdown with the Brazilian generating more chances, himself only having to save one match point at 7-8.
If Fonseca and Landaluce develop into some of the biggest stars of this sport, the legacy of this match might grow alongside them. These are big comparisons, I know, but a couple of the most legendary Challenger encounters of the last few seasons were Carlos Alcaraz taking on Jannik Sinner in 2019 and Lorenzo Musetti in 2020. Clashes like this also have a very similar vibe to the Next Gen ATP Finals, which are coming up in Jeddah from the 18th of December (Fonseca has qualified, Landaluce is an alternate).
1. Jerome Kym vs Marko Topo – Zug QF – 5-7 7-6(10) 7-6(6)
Was this a better quality match than Joao Fonseca vs Martin Landaluce or Otto Virtanen vs Benjamin Bonzi? Probably not. But it would be unfair to say this was all chaos, after all we’re talking about two hugely talented ball-strikers. Jerome Kym was finally healthy enough to play for pretty much the entire season, which instantly resulted in a ranking jump and he’ll be looking to crack the Top 100 next year. Marko Topo continues to be extremely inconsistent, but has a high ceiling and despite the loss this was probably his best performance of the season.
But indeed, it’s the drama of this match that made us glued to our screens. Kym was pushed to the brink by the underdog on the quick clay in Zug, somehow surviving five match points in the second set tie-break. That didn’t break Topo’s spirit yet and he was the one who continued to make some inroads on return in the decider. The Swiss only had three break points in the entire match and couldn’t convert any of them, making the tie-breaks his only potential way to victory.
And that’s exactly what happened with Topo missing two more match points in the deciding set breaker. Kym’s roar after the win says it all about how tense that was and so does his Ben Shelton phone call celebration. He would go on to recover from this 3-hour 18-minute marathon quickly to dominate Joris De Loore and Roman Andres Burruchaga, claiming the title at the end of the week. In 207 events, many matches featured three tight sets and a memorable finish. But at least from what I watched, neither was able to combine drama and quality like this Zug quarterfinal.
Jerome Kym wins his 2nd Challenger title, beating Roman Andres Burruchaga 6-4 6-4 in Zug
Jumps almost 100 spots into Top 200, right in time for US Open Q. Despite a long week, was still firing on all cylinders today. Here are the 7 MPs he saved vs Topo in QF (+ his converted MP) pic.twitter.com/7PWHEWIWoN
— Damian Kust (@damiankust) July 28, 2024
Main Photo Credit: Jerry Lai – USA TODAY Sports
