Dino Prizmic took a few weeks off after winning Zagreb, but had no issues finding that form in Bratislava to pick up his 10th win in a row. Tristan Schoolkate is nearing a Top 100 debut, while Joao Lucas Reis da Silva was flawless in his campaign for a maiden title in Santa Fe. Read up on last week’s action:
Ilkley
Jack Pinnington Jones was already a factor during last year’s grass season, posting a massive win over Cameron Norrie in Nottingham. The 22-year-old, who plays college tennis for the same school that Norrie once did (Texas Christian University), went even further in his 6th pro appearance of the season. While no singular upset was as huge as the one from last year, he posted wins over strong grass-courters like Mikhail Kukushkin, Billy Harris, and former Wimbledon junior champion Shintaro Mochizuki.
Tristan Schoolkate won just one match in his next four events after reaching the final in Guangzhou at the start of May, with his grass campaign starting with a loss to Nicolas Jarry in Birmingham. His hyper-aggressive style of play led to some wild matches in Ilkley as well, but this time he was coming out on top in these encounters. That included coming back from 1-3 down in sets 2 and 3 against Harold Mayot and surviving a deciding set tie-break against Sho Shimabukuro to make his first grass Challenger final.
The hyper-aggressive plays of Schoolkate were often a double-edged sword with the Australian serve-and-volleying on second delivery at 8-all in the first set tie-break. It didn’t pan out, but over the course of the match dictating the low of the proceedings turned out to be an asset. The player putting on more pressure was Schoolkate, who eventually claimed his 3rd Challenger title 6-7(8) 6-4 6-3 and now finds himself just 40 points outside the Top 100. Both finalists are featuring in Ilkley next week.
Perugia
After going 16-2 on the ITF Tour since the start of the season, Nerman Fatic recently reached a Challenger final in Skopje. He came from the qualifying there before only losing to Jay Clarke and also had to work his way into the main draw in Perugia. The most important win of this run had him save 2 match points to fight his way back into the match against Oriol Roca Batalla from 3-6 2-5 down. The whole affair lasted 3 hours and 27 minutes.
Andrea Pellegrino had the best week of his career in Estoril about a month ago, defeating World No. 19 Felix Auger-Aliassime on the way to the final. The Italian had gone a bit quiet since, but was able to find his groove after a gritty win from 4-6 1-3 down against Gabriele Piraino. Pellegrino faced four consecutive compatriots on the way to the final and the difficulty level was gradually increasing. From Piraino it went to Federico Bondioli, then Francesco Passaro, and eventually Luca Nardi.
Once Pellegrino catches fire, he gets very tough to stop. Fatic had to try to keep him off-rhythm, but the clean ball from the Italian was still a major issue. To make matters worse, the Bosnian cramped up in the second set and Pellegrino expertly erased a 0-40 deficit at 3-all to avoid getting in trouble. Soon after, he claimed his 4th Challenger title 6-2 6-4 and is now back to career-high No. 136. This week he’s playing in Poznan, while Fatic will be trying to keep up his good momentum in Sassuolo.
Bratislava
Valentin Royer slowed down recently after his incredible achievements in March/April when he was in the semifinals of five consecutive Challengers, winning two of them and making a further final. Getting back on track took some impressive resilience as the Frenchman was down a set in three consecutive matches to begin the event. He fought through all of that before ending the run of 2022 champion and No. 1 seed Alexander Shevchenko to reach his 4th final of the season.
Dino Prizmic was the champion in Zagreb recently and didn’t play again until Bratislava. Despite being able to produce a high level sporadically over the past year or so, the Croat kept battling various physical issues and couldn’t combine his good performances into runs. That situation might be handled now as Prizmic was in phenomenal form all week, not dropping more than four games in a set on the way to the final. That included quality wins over Henrique Rocha or Cristian Garin.
Prizmic lost to Royer in Zadar in March, getting bullied by the Frenchman’s consistent depth and pace off both wings. The patterns of play weren’t that different in this encounter, but this time the 19-year-old had more to stand up to his opponent with. A mammoth second set (around 80 minutes) decided the match as Royer blew a 6-3 lead in the tie-break with Prizmic taking his 3rd Challenger title 6-4 7-6(6). He returns to the Top 200 and will now play Sassuolo, while the runner-up quickly switches to grass in Nottingham.
Lyon
Marco Trungelliti had recently reached a couple of Challenger semifinals in Zagreb and Heilbronn, so going a round further seemed like a natural step that would happen for him soon. The 35-year-old needed to use his experience to turn matches around against Ivan Gakhov and Dimitar Kuzmanov, before defeating Clement Tabur to reach his first final in just over a year (Vicenza 2024). And that’s despite Gakhov seemingly having him on the ropes at 6-2 3-1.
Daniel Merida had only one Challenger quarterfinal to his name before last week, losing to Francesco Passaro in Maia in November. But the Spanish youngster had long been considered a prospect and with two stacked ITF titles claimed this season, it was time to produce something at the higher level. Players like Kyrian Jacquet or Luca Van Assche had no answer to his game with only Henri Squire coming any close as Merida reached his first Challenger final.
Trungelliti had a 3-11 record in Challenger finals and while he was dominating for 90% of the match on Sunday, these nerves presented themselves eventually. Merida was able to run away with the second set but was once more under pressure in the decider, miraculously keeping himself in it on a few occasions. Trungelliti finally converted his 12th match point to claim his 4th Challenger title 6-3 4-6 6-3 and took a special exempt for Nottingham (on grass), while Merida sticks to the dirt in Royan.
Santa Fe
Joao Lucas Reis da Silva recently won an M25 title in Coquimbo and entered this event with a lot of confidence. The Brazilian has been known for his yearly week of peak performance, losing all three Challenger finals previously contested at 2022 Ambato, 2023 Coquimbo, and 2024 Florianopolis. But his ceiling has always been very high and didn’t drop more than four games in a set on the way to his 4th final at this level, including a strong win over defending champion Andrea Collarini.
Lautaro Midon had been looking for a Challenger breakthrough himself, reaching three quarterfinals this season and losing to Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida in back-to-back wins in Brazil recently. His matches were a bit more competitive than Reis da Silva’s, but he also didn’t drop a set on the way to the Santa Fe final. Santiago Rodriguez Taverna took him to a tie-break in the quarterfinals, while Dali Blanch had absolutely nothing to say as Midon outfoxed him in the final four.
Midon will have his shots at Challenger titles in the future, but this was simply the week of Reis da Silva and there was nothing anybody could do about that. The Brazilian kept up his incredible standard of play from the previous encounters and while he could have closed it out a bit more efficiently, he still claimed his 1st Challenger title 6-4 6-3. Both players will stay in South America to play Santa Cruz this week.
Events held this week:
- Lexus Nottingham Open (Challenger 125, grass)
- Emilia-Romagna Tennis Cup (Sassuolo, Challenger 125, clay)
- Enea Poznan Open (Challenger 100, clay)
- Royan Atlantique Open (Challenger 50, clay)
- Bolivia Open (Santa Cruz, Challenger 50, clay)
Luca Nardi (Nottingham) was supposed to be the only Top 100 player in action, but pulled out after the draw was made.
First-round matches to watch:
Nottingham
- (WC) Jack Pinnington Jones vs Emilio Nava
- (7) Arthur Cazaux vs Adrian Mannarino
Sassuolo
- (1) Carlos Taberner vs Jozef Kovalik
- (5) Taro Daniel vs Alejandro Moro Canas
Poznan
- (1) Cristian Garin vs Alexey Vatutin
- (4) Filip Misolic vs Maks Kasnikowski
Royan
- (1) Calvin Hemery vs (PR) Cedrik-Marcel Stebe
- (8) Daniel Merida vs Matej Dodig
Santa Cruz
- (1) Murkel Dellien vs Pedro Boscardin Dias
- (WC) Facundo Bagnis vs (2) Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
