Otto Virtanen gained 225 points in three weeks, going 13-1 as the indoor season is almost coming to a close. Marco Trungelliti reached the Kigali final again, this time managing to stop Kamil Majchrzak along the way, while Murkel Dellien almost pulled off a surprise title on home soil in Santa Cruz. Read back on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Lugano
Daniel Masur has been in amazing shape on the ITF Tour this year, coming into Lugano with three titles and a 19-2 win/loss record. He was basically traveling around all the fast indoor events nearby and chose a similar court profile for his first Challenger Tour appearance of the season. Despite having to qualify, he raced through the draw, not dropping a set in the six matches on the way to the final. Only Radu Albot was able to take him to a tie-break (both sets).
Otto Virtanen was under a lot of pressure in March, defending half his points which could potentially see him drop out of the Top 300. The Finn played like he knew exactly what was at stake in Pau (title) and Lille (semifinal), also following that up with a Lugano run. It was once again an incredible level in the four matches on the way to the final here, with him not dropping a set and, in fact, losing just 20 games in 4 matches (despite tough opposition like Rudolf Molleker or Pierre-Hugues Herbert).
The final delivered with a dramatic decider. Virtanen was once again willing to dig deep and managed to grind out the second set, but he was feeling the efforts from the last three events and eventually had to save two match points right before the final tie-break. Masur will regret missing an aggressive second serve return on one of them as the Finn really pulled away after that. Virtanen claimed his 5th Challenger title 6-7 6-4 7-6 and earned 225 points across three weeks. It gets him less than 100 points away from a Top 100 debut, but he’ll be dropping 120 very soon. He’ll return to action in Miami qualifying. Masur wants to play a carpet 25K in Trimbach this week.
Santa Cruz
Camilo Ugo Carabelli suffered a couple of qualifying round-one exits to end his Golden Swing campaigns in Rio de Janeiro and Santiago. This week, he kept outlasting his opponents despite early pressure. That included recent junior stars Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and Juan Carlos Prado Angelo, plus a tight match with Goncalo Oliveira where the Portuguese served for the match. In an impressive physical effort, Ugo Carabelli spent almost five hours on the court on Saturday, winning both his quarterfinal and semifinal clashes.
Murkel Dellien is in the form of his life this year, coming to Santa Cruz with two ITF titles and a 19-4 record. Taking that to the Challenger level is something he was never able to do, though. However, playing at home, the Bolivian found the best run of his career. He started out by beating his brother Hugo in their first professional meeting before surviving some wild matches, including Roman Andres Burruchaga briefly leading him up a break in the 3rd set.
Very much in the form of his life, Dellien managed to start firing his forehand with easy power right away, going 4-1 up. But to hit through Ugo Carabelli like this, you need to be able to control your aggression very well, and for the Bolivian, it was just unsustainable. The home crowd tried to pump him up, but soon enough, the match was over. Ugo Carabelli took his 6th Challenger Tour title (2nd in 2024) 6-4 6-2 and looks primed for a Top 100 return this year. Both finalists are scheduled for Santiago next.
Kigali
Marco Trungelliti lost in the final of the first event in Kigali to Kamil Majchrzak and only seven days later played the same opponent in the Kigali-2 semifinals. The Argentinian dropped his only set on the way to the championship match against Mohamed Safwat in the last eight and defeated Majchrzak 6-3 6-4 to snap his 10-match winning streak. 2-10 in Challenger finals, Trungelitti earned himself another chance to look for his first title at this level since 2019.
Clement Tabur was pretty unlucky to draw eventual semifinalist Stefan Kozlov in the opening round of the first Kigali event, but made up for it with his run last week. The only tough challenge he got on the way to the final was against Calvin Hemery in the quarterfinals. Tabur is a great example of a player who was struggling to bridge the gap between the Challenger Tour and the ITF circuit, winning six titles on the latter last year. That’s exactly what the Challenger 50 category was made for.
Trungelliti started the match with an erratic streak but soon managed to level. The margins weren’t that big between the two, with the ball-striking doing similar damage and neither player being that comfortable completely taking over the points. But the veteran always had that tiny bit more and was able to claim his 3rd Challenger title 6-4 6-2 (1st since 2019), improving his record in finals to 3-10. He ends the Kigali double with 75 points earned, 8 ahead of Majchrzak. Both finalists will now rest for a week before returning to the Challenger Tour at events in Murcia and Zadar.
Challenger Tour magic:
When the tweener lob isn’t even the best shot of the rally… (thanks to @dennnnnnB for pointing out this Roman Andres Burruchaga gem).
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/F1oELYHgzh— Damian Kust (@damiankust) March 7, 2024
Events held this week:
- Arizona Tennis Classic (Phoenix, Challenger 175, hard)
- Circuito Dove Men+Care Challenger Santiago (Challenger 75, clay)
- Kiskut Open (Szekesfehervar, Challenger 75, clay)
- Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup (Challenger 50, indoor hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Christopher Eubanks, Sebastian Ofner, Roman Safiullin, Yannick Hanfmann, Nuno Borges, Roberto Carballes Baena, Aleksandar Vukic, Arthur Cazaux, Rinky Hijikata, Arthur Rinderknech, Daniel Elahi Galan, Hugo Gaston, Luca Van Assche, Alexandre Muller, J.J. Wolf, Maximilian Marterer, Jurij Rodionov, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Constant Lestienne (Phoenix) + Cristian Garin in the Phoenix qualifying
- Dominic Thiem (Szekesfehervar)
First-round matches to watch:
Phoenix
- (1) Christopher Eubanks vs (ALT) Thanasi Kokkinakis
- Hugo Gaston vs (WC) Matteo Berrettini
Santiago
- Gianluca Mager vs (5) Roman Andres Burruchaga
- (PR) Paul Jubb vs (2) Juan Pablo Varillas
Mager and Burruchaga faced each other in the Santa Cruz second round last week, with the Argentine claiming a 7-6(10) 6-1 win.
Szekesfehervar
- (1) Dominic Thiem vs Qualifier
- Mate Valkusz vs (8) Matteo Martineau
Thiem is returning to the tour after an extended training block on clay, an attempt to change the trajectory of his career.
Hamburg
- (WC) Max Hans Rehberg vs (6) Rudolf Molleker
- Maks Kaśnikowski vs Alexander Blockx
Main Photo Credit: Matthias Hauer – GEPA via USA TODAY Sports
