Borna Coric and Valentin Royer were the fourth and fifth players to claim multiple Challenger titles this season, both of them doing that in the span of two weeks. Cordoba featured a final between two of the best altitude clay specialists on tour, while Hersonissos on Crete enjoyed a successful debut as a new location. Read on for a look back at last week’s action:
Challenger Tour weekly recap
Kigali
Valentin Royer won the title at the first event in Kigali and wasn’t quite done winning in Rwanda yet. He survived a two-day opener with Oriol Roca Batalla, getting off to a quick start in the third set after the match was restarted, before going on a 4-0 run in tiebreaks to make it all the way to another final. The Frenchman was full of confidence and even when Max Houkes led him 5-3 in the first set in the semifinals, he set about breaking the Dutchman’s spirit.
Guy den Ouden lost to Royer in the second round of the first Kigali Challenger, despite leading 4-1 in the deciding set. Turns out the Dutchman didn’t have all that much to fear from anybody else at this venue, making another final as Royer was in the other half of the draw this time around. For den Ouden, the only dangerous moment of the week came when Calvin Hemery took the opening set in their quarterfinal match, but the Frenchman soon suffered a right elbow injury and was forced to retire.
Their match from the first event in Kigali was the closest anyone came to eliminating Royer over these two weeks in Rwanda, but this final wasn’t quite like that. The Frenchman took an early lead and was simply as solid as it gets, never giving his opponent any potential edge to look at. He saved both break points faced to claim his third Challenger title 6-2 6-4 and should find himself inside the top 125 when the next ATP Rankings are released after Indian Wells. Next up for him is a week of rest followed by the Challenger in Zadar, while den Ouden is signed up for an M25 ITF in Tarragona at the end of March.
Cordoba
Thiago Agustin Tirante had won just one match in his last four events, not qualifying for any of the Golden Swing ATP Tour events. But sometimes all it takes is one tight battle going your way and the Argentinian found that against Juan Bautista Torres in the first round here, taking it 7-6(7) in the deciding set. He was a bit fortunate to post retirement wins against Renzo Olivo and Juan Manuel Cerundolo, but found his game in the favorable altitude conditions to make his first final of the season.
Juan Pablo Ficovich is known for peaking in altitude conditions and after qualifying for the ATP 250 in Santiago (lost to Cristian Garin in the opening round), he was able to prove his expertise again with the run in Cordoba. He snapped the six-match win streak of Lautaro Midon in the second round before defeating two clay-court greats in Thiago Monteiro and Federico Coria. Against the latter, his head-to-head record now stands at 3-11 with 3 wins in their last five matches.
Both players thirve at altitude and for a while, this was looking like a potential classic. But Tirante was so much more explosive with his footwork in the forehand corner, both offensively and out of position. Being the more dynamic player allowed him to completely take over and win his fifth Challenger title in a rather uneventful 6-4 6-0 final. He has withdrawn from this week’s Santiago Challenger, while Ficovich remains in the draw.
Thionville
Borna Coric suddenly recovered his form in Lugano the week before Thionville, taking the title without having his serve broken. That streak lasted until the opening set of his semifinal against Alibek Kachmazov this week, ending up at 71 holds in a row. The Croat was quick to show it was just a momentary setback with early leads in the next two sets allowing him to reach another final, despite the conditions in Thionville being significantly slower than in Lugano.
Arthur Bouquier has been proving his unexpected Lille run last month was far less repeatable than it seemed. First, he made it to the semifinals in Pau (still posting some wins that seemed like they can’t happen every week) and eventually, he found a more regular rhythm in Thionville. After two straightforward rounds, he received a walkover from Luca Van Assche in the quarterfinals and defeated Jurij Rodionov in a three-tiebreak battle in the final four.
Understandably, Coric wasn’t in top shape physically anymore, producing his sloppiest performance of the fortnight. But that doesn’t mean it was easy for Bouquier to take him down. A chance did arrive at the start of the opening set with the Frenchman serving great and showing off his technical skills to earn four opportunities to go 4-0 up. Not converting these break points turned out to be the final nail in the coffin as Coric started dominating again and claimed his fifth Challenger title 6-4 6-4. He’s about 45 points away from returning to the top 100 in the Live Rankings and will switch to clay now, competing in Zadar after a week of rest. Bouquier will try to keep the momentum going in Cherbourg.
Hersonissos
It had been a disappointing season for Edas Butvilas thus far with the Lithuanian not reaching a single quarterfinal until Hersonissos. He was finally able to break that streak by beating Christoph Negritu from 2-5 down in the deciding set tiebreak before outlasting Henry Searle and Zsombor Piros in a couple more dramatic clashes. Especially the Hungarian had a few game points to go 6-4 5-3 up with Butvilas having to dig deep for three matches in a row.
Stuart Parker was a surprise Challenger champion in Nonthaburi back in 2022, but never really followed it up and once more found himself outside the top 500 in the ATP Rankings. The Brit had only made one quarterfinal at this level since his maiden title (Glasgow 2022), coming through the qualifying to suddenly find his best game in Hersonissos. Only Nicolas Sanchez Izquierdo took a set off him in six matches with Parker posting impressive wins over Dimitar Kuzmanov or Chris Rodesch.
Parker had the better start in the final with a hot shot pass in the opening game and a 3-1 lead. But the streak of games that happened from there basically decided the outcome and it was Butvilas claiming 9 of them in a row, most to 15 or 30. The Lithuanian becoming a wall off the baseline was something that his opponent couldn’t handle, falling into whole patches of unforced errors. Butvilas claimed his second Challenger title 6-3 6-3, becoming the second player from his country to claim multiple Challenger trophies (15 – Ricardas Berankis). He’ll take some rest now and return to action on clay in Murcia with Parker grabbing a special exempt for Hersonissos-2.
Challenger Tour magic:
Not sure who was more shocked this shot went in, Novak or Piros himself
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/Kyt6boMz6F— Damian Kust (@damiankust) March 5, 2025
Events held this week:
- Arizona Tennis Classic (Phoenix, Challenger 175, hard)
- Republica Dominicana Open, Copa Cap Cana Ciudad Destino (Cap Cana, Challenger 175, hard)
- Challenger Cherbourg La Manche (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- Challenger de Santiago – Dove Men+Care (Challenger 75, clay)
- Crete Challenger 2 (Hersonissos, Challenger 50, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Nuno Borges, Flavio Cobolli, Pedro Martinez, Jan-Lennard Struff, Aleksandar Vukic, Luca Nardi, Roman Safiullin, Arthur Rinderknech, Kei Nishikori, Corentin Moutet, Joao Fonseca, Jacob Fearnley, Alexander Bublik, Rinky Hijikata, Hugo Gaston, Adam Walton, James Duckworth (Phoenix)
- Alexandre Muller, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Miomir Kecmanovic, David Goffin, Jakub Mensik, Benjamin Bonzi, Mattia Bellucci, Cameron Norrie, Daniel Altmaier, Damir Dzumhur, Thiago Seyboth Wild, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Fabio Fognini (Cap Cana)
First-round matches to watch:
Phoenix
- Pavel Kotov vs Joao Fonseca
- (6) Luca Nardi vs Kei Nishikori
Cap Cana
- Aleksandar Kovacevic vs (7) Mattia Bellucci
- (5) Jakub Mensik vs (ALT) Cristian Garin
Cherbourg
- (1) Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs Clement Chidekh
- Arthur Bouquier vs Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg
Santiago
- (3) Tomas Barrios Vera vs (WC) Diego Dedura-Palomero
- Emilio Nava vs (4) Juan Pablo Ficovich
Hersonissos
- (4) Tung-Lin Wu vs (SE) Stuart Parker
- Ricardas Berankis vs (3) Khumoyun Sultanov
Main photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
