While the finals didn’t end up delivering, it was a week of enjoyable stories on the ATP Challenger Tour. 2024 Wimbledon junior champion Nicolai Budkov Kjaer won the all-Norwegian final in Glasgow, while Raphael Collignon suddenly found his best game to secure a Top 100 debut. Calvin Hemery had another shot at that elusive second Challenger title, while Dalibor Svrcina triumphed on the hard courts in India.
Read up on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Pau
Patrick Zahraj had shown some glimpses of his talent with the recent wins over Christopher Eubanks or Mikael Ymer, but the run in Pau was next level. The German qualified for the main draw and posted four big upsets on the way to his first Challenger final. Harold Mayot, Alibek Kachmazov, Arthur Fery, Lukas Klein – all these excellent indoor players had no response to his game with only Fery taking a set (so did Mika Brunold in the qualifying).
Raphael Collignon had been 0-4 in 2025 going into this event, and not much was suggesting that his form would suddenly improve when he was struggling against Maxime Beauge in the opening round. He suddenly found his confidence, though, and won the next three matches as well, including snapping the 10-match win streak of the recent Lille champion, Arthur Bouquier. This run was vital for Collignon, who secured a chance to break the Top 100 but had to win the final.
Saving all five break points helped Collignon to survive the opening set without many issues and he was still playing his consistent indoor tennis. Zahraj wasn’t going to quit on this match, though, and attacked him off the return to finally get to a 4-2 lead in the second. But that evaporated way too quickly, with Collignon claiming his 3rd Challenger title 6-2 6-4. The Belgian breaks the Top 100 and will be the top seed in Lugano next week, with Zahraj also joining the draw as a special exempt.
Pune
Brandon Holt is in some great form this season, and by the time he reached the Pune final, his win/loss record was already at 17-4. That included winning his maiden Challenger title in Nonthaburi in January and the semifinals in Manama the week before. Holt joined the Indian Swing for its third event and didn’t waste much time getting into the right groove, only dropping one set against one of the best performers of the previous weeks, Billy Harris (Chennai semifinalist and New Delhi runner-up).
Dalibor Svrcina had been pretty solid in the Indian Swing, with the back-to-back Chennai/New Delhi champion Kyrian Jacquet taking him out in the semifinals of the first event. The second, he lost to his nemesis Vit Kopriva in the second round (their head-to-head is 0-4 and 0-8 insets). The Czech was almost out on the first hurdle in Pune but saved two match points against August Holmgren in the opening round (both unreturned serves). It turned out to be a crucial win as he later made his first Challenger final since July 2023.
Holt started as confident as ever, taking advantage of all the momentum he’s gathered recently to produce a more aggressive version of his game. But that soon faded as Svrcina kept coming up with some unreal defensive shotmaking and took the wind out of his sails. The American was a beaten man in the second set, with Svrcina claiming his 3rd Challenger title (1st on hard courts) 7-6(3) 6-1. The champion ends his Asian Swing and isn’t signed up for any events in the next few weeks, while Holt will try to keep up his great form in Bangalore.
Glasgow
Viktor Durasovic claimed his maiden Challenger title in Nottingham at the beginning of the season before going on to get on a roll in another British event. This is already the best form of his career and he kept going despite setbacks this week, dropping sets he probably shouldn’t have to Daniel Rincon and Joshua Story. As such, Durasovic won all four matches on the way to the final in deciders, including a match point saved against Matteo Martineau.
The rivalry between Norway’s No. 2 and No. 3 has been fascinating this year, with Nicolai Budkov Kjaer losing to Durasovic in Manama the week before Glasgow. Who would have thought they would meet again in a more important match just 11 days later? The 18-year-old Budkov Kjaer was the Wimbledon boys’ singles champion in 2024 and has now made Great Britain his happy hunting ground again. Only Hugo Grenier and Liam Draxl took him to a third set on the way to his first Challenger final (but he won them 6-1 and 6-2, respectively).
This one went completely different from their Manama encounter. First of all, Budkov Kjaer was almost unplayable on serve with only one 0-30 deficit he cleaned up so quickly. Durasovic couldn’t match that and instead struggled with some of the execution on his aggressive forehand. Things escalated after the youngster got the first break, and eventually, the 18-year-old claimed his maiden Challenger title 6-4 6-3. He will debut in the Top 300, with the runner-up getting closer and closer to a potential Slam qualifying debut. Budkov Kjaer will take some rest before returning in Thionville, while Durasovic took a special exempt into Lugano.
Brazzaville
Calvin Hemery has been struggling to capture his second Challenger title for years now, with eight consecutive final losses since picking up his first trophy at 2017 Tampere (overall final record 1-9). The Frenchman made his 6th Challenger final since July 2023 as the Brazzaville top seed, surviving the key matchup against Mikael Ymer in the second round. Other opponents didn’t really come close with Hemery also getting a very rare first-round bye in a Challenger main draw (not enough players showed up in Congo).
The seeds delivered in Brazzaville with No. 2 Geoffrey Blancaneaux also reaching the final. With just two wins in six events prior to this event, the lighter draw helped the Frenchman find his way back to a stronger level. He was a pretty big favorite in all his matches, avoiding clashes with any other seeds besides Hemery and only dropping one set to Pablo Saraiva dos Santos (who came even closer to beating him in Florianopolis last year). Blancaneaux reached his first final since last March in New Delhi.
Hemery had that 1-9 Challenger final record, but for some of these, you could doubt whether he underperformed or was just outplayed. There was not much to question after this one, though, with the nerves being very palpable; it was even like the top seed was uncomfortable with the footwork. Blancaneaux just played a solid match with good defense and claimed his 3rd Challenger title 6-3 6-4, which should help him with the New Delhi points dropping soon. Both finalists will stay in Africa for the Kigali double.
Challenger Tour magic:
Bouquier and his black magic again. Collignon looks much stronger today, but the Frenchman still gets to 3-4 from 0-4 (now 4-5). More or less same time Rincon won the first set vs Durasovic from 0-4 in Glasgow, another guy with the power of voodoo this week.
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/G9hUTOs2bN— Damian Kust (@damiankust) February 22, 2025
Events held this week:
- Bengaluru Open (Bangalore, Challenger 125, hard)
- The Better Buzz San Diego Open (Challenger 100, hard)
- Rwanda Challenger (Kigali, Challenger 75, clay)
- 4° Citta di Lugano (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
Raphael Collignon (Lugano) will be the only Top 100 player in action with his debut pushing down Arthur Cazaux (San Diego) to #101.
First-round matches to watch:
Bangalore
- Valentin Vacherot vs (3) Brandon Holt
- Khumoyun Sultanov vs (2) Tristan Schoolkate
San Diego
- (WC) Jenson Brooksby vs Coleman Wong
- (5) Kamil Majchrzak vs Colton Smith
Kigali
- (ALT) Eliakim Coulibaly vs (8) Matej Dodig
- Geoffrey Blancaneaux vs (WC) Marco Cecchinato
Lugano
- Clement Chidekh vs Emil Ruusuvuori
- (7) Vilius Gaubas vs (PR) Dominic Stricker
Main Photo Credit: David Pintens
