Chun-Hsin Tseng managed to defend his 2024 crown in Vicenza, while Clement Chidekh returned to form with a title run in Chisinau. Meanwhile, Patrick Kypson maintained his winning run after triumphing in Bogota by securing the trophy in Little Rock. Read up on last week’s Challenger Tour action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Little Rock
Patrick Kypson returned to physical shape recently and was able to win the Challenger in Bogota, not playing again until Little Rock. Forced to start from the qualifying, he comfortably made the main draw before running into top seed and defending champion Mitchell Krueger. The American produced an impressive performance to break early in the decider and extend the win streak, with no one else coming any close to beating him in the next three matches.
Michael Zheng often produces his best professional results right after the college season, and after an unexpected Palmas del Mar run in 2023, that’s what happened for him this week as well. In just his second pro appearance of the season after an ITF event in January, Zheng was on it early with four consecutive straight-set wins to make another final. Particularly impressive was his display over No. 2 seed Liam Draxl, who was looking to reach his fifth final of the year.
Kypson was bullying Zheng in the opening set, breaking twice and not dropping even one point on serve (16/16). The younger of the two Americans wasn’t ready for that kind of early serve + forehand pace, but quickly found his footing with some excellent shotmaking. Kypson had more where that came from and responded himself with some good scrambling to get the key break in the decider before having to fend off an inspired comeback effort from Zheng to claim his 5th Challenger title 6-1 1-6 7-5. Both players grabbed a special exempt into Tyler this week.
Vicenza
Chun-Hsin Tseng picked up some big points during Roland Garros last year, triumphing in Vicenza and finishing runner-up in Prostejov. While the Taiwanese undoubtedly would have been fine losing all these points to get a shot in the main draw in Paris, he quickly overcame the disappointment of losing in the first round of qualifying. Despite a physical dip in the second set against Italian youngster Federico Bondioli, he made his way to the Vicenza Challenger Tour final for the second year in a row.
Lukas Neumayer lost in the second round of French Open qualifying to his compatriot Filip Misolic, who then posted a run in the main draw. But the level of the Austrian was strong, and he proved it in Vicenza, despite having to survive a few marathons. His second-round win over Timofey Skatov lasted over three hours and required a comeback from 3-6 0-2 down, while Ignacio Buse held a match point against him in the quarterfinals. Given the circumstances, a walkover from Jerome Kym was a significant help.
Neumayer lost all four previous Challenger finals he contested, and unfortunately for the Austrian, it seems to be impacting his ability to stay composed in these matches. Trying to hit through Tseng’s defense mostly resulted in forehand error spikes, and leaving him much space wasn’t an option either. It wasn’t until 1-5 15-40 in the 2nd set that Neumayer loosened up, but by then it was too late. Tseng claimed his 6th Challenger title 6-3 6-4 and will now head to Prostejov to try to defend his runner-up points with Neumayer competing in the same event.
Chisinau
Ilya Simakin had been continuously improving of late, first posting a memorable run where he almost beat Jesper de Jong in Istanbul last year, before also reaching his first Challenger semifinal in Wuxi at the beginning of May. As the top seed in Chisinau, the Russian pulled off a right two-set win over junior Charlie Robertson before defeating his compatriot Petr Bar Biryukov in a match where he dropped a set, despite only facing 1 break point and creating 13. Ultimately, Simiakin beat Giles Hussey to reach his first Challenger final.
Clement Chidekh struggled for most of the season, particularly after losing his indoor points for Glasgow (title) and Hamburg (final) in 2024. This time, the indoor swing was a bust for the Frenchman, and he was struggling to get back on track elsewhere, too, not doing enough to receive a wildcard for Roland Garros qualifying. But finally, the 23-year-old made his way through the draw in Chisinau at the loss of just one set (0-6 in the second to Olaf Pieczkowski).
Chidekh’s aggressive game isn’t that easy to execute against someone as physically strong as Simakin, and the opening set was really tight. With no break points created by either player, they went to a tie-break, and it wasn’t decided until the Russian double-faulted at 6-6. Chidekh started pushing for his opening a bit more from there, but it still wasn’t until late in the second set that he secured his second Challenger title 7-6(6) 7-5. He’s now shifting his focus to a couple of M25 events on hard courts, while Simakin’s next plans are unclear.
Challenger Tour events held this week:
- Lexus Birmingham Open (Challenger 125, grass)
- Neckarcup 2.0 (Heilbronn, Challenger 100, clay)
- Unicredit Czech Open (Prostejov, Challenger 100, clay)
- Texas Spine and Joint Men’s Championship (Tyler, Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Mattia Bellucci, Arthur Rinderknech, Yoshihito Nishioka, Rinky Hijikata, Aleksandar Vukic, Christopher O’Connell, James Duckworth, Kamil Majchrzak, Mackenzie McDonald, Nishesh Basavareddy (Birmingham)
- Luca Nardi, Pablo Carreno Busta (Heilbronn)
- Jakub Mensik, Alejandro Tabilo, Vit Kopriva, Hugo Dellien, Chun-Hsin Tseng (Prostejov)
First-round matches to watch:
Birmingham
- Otto Virtanen vs (4) Aleksandar Vukic
- Adrian Mannarino vs (2) Yoshihito Nishioka
Heilbronn
- (1) Luca Nardi vs Daniel Rincon
- (3) Elmer Moller vs Guy den Ouden
Prostejov
- (1/WC) Jakub Mensik vs Vitaliy Sachko
- Lukas Neumayer vs (3) Vit Kopriva
Tyler
- (JR) Kaylan Bigun vs (PR) Ilya Ivashka
- (WC) Trevor Svajda vs (2) Liam Draxl
Main Photo Credit: Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union
