Emilio Nava returned to South America right after debuting in the Top 100 and grabbed his fourth Challenger Tour title of the season, tying him with Borna Coric for most at this level in 2025. Jan Choinski and Moez Echargui aren’t far behind, with the two claiming their 3rd trophies this last week. Meanwhile, Franco Agamenone had a surprising return to form in Targu Mures and Michael Zheng denied Martin Damm two championship points in Columbus. Read up on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Bad Waltersdorf
Jan Choinski was ranked outside the Top 200 before Bad Waltersdorf, but had actually produced several good results over the summer with titles in Troyes and Bunschoten. Conditions in Austria are typically suitable for him as well. He probably should have lost a dramatic second round against Marko Topo as the German served for the match and had four consecutive match points in the final set tie-break. Choinski survived 2-6 6-1 7-6(6) and went on to reach another final.
Choinski just saved four consecutive MPs to defeat Topo 2-6 6-1 7-6(6). Brutal for Marko, who also served for the match at 6-5, and was playing a screamer of a TB (works on a couple of levels) until the 6-2 lead
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/N6aDnSl0AZ— Damian Kust (@damiankust) September 18, 2025
Vit Kopriva didn’t manage to defend his Szczecin title the week before Bad Waltersdorf, suffering a rough loss from 5-1 up in the 3rd set to Pablo Llamas Ruiz. The Czech needed to bounce back quickly with a tough opener against Thiago Seyboth Wild. He only survived that in the deciding set tie-break before going to defeat Austria’s strongest young prospect, Joel Schwaerzler, and a couple of classy Spanish veterans – Pablo Carreno Busta and Roberto Carballes Baena.
Choinski opened the match with a very aggressive mindset on return, going up 4-0. It wasn’t long until Kopriva started outplaying him on the angles in longer exchanges, and how the Brit responded would decide the rest of the match. At 6-5, he converted his 5th set point after saving four break chances, catapulting himself to his 6th Challenger title 7-5 6-4. He now finds himself deep inside the Top 200 again as both finalists will play Lisbon this week.
Saint-Tropez
Dan Added had one Challenger Tour final to his name before mid-August this year, but has now made another three since. After losing in back-to-back championship matches in Hersonissos, the Frenchman slowed down a little and was unlucky to run into Stan Wawrinka early in Rennes. Back outdoors, he won a deciding set tie-break against Harold Mayot in the second round and was due to meet the Swiss legend again, but the 40-year-old pulled out due to a left hamstring injury.
Moez Echargui has been on a tear since becoming the second-oldest Challenger first-time champion in Porto in August. Counting from that tournament to the Saint-Tropez final, the Tunisian’s win/loss record became an outstanding 24-1 with three titles (Porto CH, M25 Monastir, Hersonissos-4 CH) and two Davis Cup wins. Despite one loss to Abdullah Shelbayh in Istanbul, the run continued with Echargui reaching another Challenger final, only dropping one set to Mark Lajal in the semifinals.
Echargui had already defeated Added in two finals during his incredible run, and the Frenchman didn’t really bring anything new. The favorite played with good controlled aggression and forced his opponent to take risks. It’s just that Added doesn’t have many offensive tools other than his net game or dropshots; injecting pace can quickly make him lose a lot of control over his groundstrokes. Echargui claimed his third Challenger title 6-3 6-4 and will debut inside the Top 150. He’s headed to Orleans next, while Added chose to withdraw from M25 Falun after going deep in Saint-Tropez.
Columbus
Michael Zheng won his maiden Challenger title in Chicago in August and had only played the US Open qualifying event since. Unlucky to draw Jerome Kym there, the Stanford star was right back in his element at the Challenger level. Alfredo Perez was the only player to take a set off him on the way to the final, with Zheng snapping an upset-heavy run from Daniel Masur in the semifinals. The 21-year-old reached his third Challenger final of the season.
Martin Damm recovered from a series of injury struggles with a big run at the US Open, winning four matches to get through the qualifying and beat Darwin Blanch in the main draw. Now it’s all about how he follows it up. In Columbus, he avenged his second-round loss to Antoine Ghibaudo from Winston-Salem the week before, later defeating Ohio State alumni James Trotter in a serve-oriented quarterfinal contest. Damm reached his second Challenger final after Oeiras in January 2024.
Damm’s serve gets a major boost on these quick indoor courts, but then again, with his size, the baseline game can suffer a little; there’s just not much time to set up. You could argue that evens out, and it was a very tight final until Zheng faced two match points at 4-5, 15-40 in the 3rd set. He was brave, attacked the net, and Damm’s baseline game was crushed in the next game following that disappointment. Zheng claimed his 2nd Challenger title 3-6 6-3 7-5 and moved up to World No. 227. Both players should be back in Tiburon after a week of rest.
Michael Zheng wins 2nd Challenger title, beating Martin Damm 3-6 6-3 7-5 in Columbus
10 Challenger wins in a row. Saved 2 MPs at 4-5 15-40 in set 3⬇️. Damm’s serve is almost untouchable in these conditions, but off the ground, he doesn’t get much time, and Mike finally got him pic.twitter.com/HspRCUolBB
— Damian Kust (@damiankust) September 21, 2025
Villa Maria
Emilio Nava broke the Top 100 on Monday despite not playing any tournament before Villa Maria. Pressure off his shoulders, but he wasn’t showing it in those early days. The No. 1 seed struggled with 37-year-old Daniel Dutra da Silva’s lefty grinding in the opening round, and it took him a while to find the required patience. He really loosened up after that match to increase his win streak in South America to 14 in a row (won Concepcion and Asuncion in March).
Alex Barrena was one of the breakout South American talents earlier this year and had an occasional peak performance in Europe as well. But his last few tournaments weren’t that strong, leaving concerns as to whether he’d be able to jump right back into it after returning to his continent. As it turned out, the 22-year-old didn’t find it problematic. On the way to his third Challenger final of the season, the closest he came to dropping a set was getting into a couple of tie-breaks.
Barrena fought well in the second set, but Nava was just a different beast the entire week after surviving his tricky opener. This kind of firepower is always tough to contain, especially when he can combine it with athleticism and knowing when to introduce a spinnier, heavier forehand into the combination. Nava claimed his 6th Challenger title 6-3 6-3 and now leads the 2025 trophy list at this level alongside Borna Coric. It sets him up much more firmly inside the Top 100 with both finalists competing in Buenos Aires next.
Targu Mures
Jay Clarke‘s excellent results on the ITF Tour early in the year allowed him to rebuild his game and grab the title in Skopje in May. But that run was instantly followed by a losing run from the Brit as it took him over two months to win a match again. It wasn’t until the first event in Targu Mures that he found his form again, losing in the semifinals to Mili Poljicak. The run to the final in the second tournament was extremely clean, with three bagels dished out and no sets lost.
Franco Agamenone had been struggling for a while longer, not even touching the form that once saw him make ATP 250 Umag semifinals and almost break the Top 100 in 2022. But something was brewing and he was already strong in the first Targu Mures event, losing to eventual champion Marco Trungelliti in the quarterfinals. Just like Clarke, he was ripping through the draw last week and made his first Challenger final since Braunschweig in July 2023.
The tactics that Agamenone had been playing with in recent years were often questionable, with the net rushing feeling like too much and not backed up by sufficient net coverage. But in this matchup and in these conditions, it actually made sense. Had to be aggressive, couldn’t just let Clarke start pushing him around. Agamenone claimed his fifth Challenger title 6-3 6-4 and will jump about 100 spots in the ATP Rankings. He’ll likely return to action on the ITF Tour in a couple of weeks, while the runner-up plays Lisbon this week.
Events held this week:
- Co’met Orleans Open (Challenger 125, indoor hard)
- Jingshan Open (Challenger 100, hard)
- Del Monte Lisboa Belem Open (Lisbon, Challenger 100, clay)
- Buenos Aires Challenger (Challenger 75, clay)
- Las Vegas Tennis Challenger (Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Raphael Collignon (Orleans)
- Valentin Royer, Mackenzie McDonald, Dalibor Svrcina (Jingshan)
- Vit Kopriva (Lisbon)
- Thiago Agustin Tirante (Buenos Aires)
First-round matches to watch:
Orleans
- (5) Martin Landaluce vs Dominic Stricker
- Nicolai Budkov Kjaer vs (2) Hugo Gaston
Jingshan
- Colton Smith vs Zsombor Piros
- (5) Nikoloz Basilashvili vs August Holmgren
Lisbon
- (3) Roberto Carballes Baena vs Thiago Seyboth Wild
- (5) Elmer Moller vs (WC) Tiago Pereira
Buenos Aires
- (1) Thiago Agustin Tirante vs Adolfo Daniel Vallejo
- Joao Lucas Reis da Silva vs (2) Emilio Nava
Las Vegas
- (1) Jurij Rodionov vs Garrett Johns
- Olle Wallin vs (2) Jack Pinnington Jones
Main Photo Credit: Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union
