It’s tough to say who was more dominant this week – Next Gen Finals champion Joao Fonseca in Canberra or the former World No. 14 Aslan Karatsev in Nonthaburi. Meanwhile, in Noumea, Moerani Bouzige produced what will likely turn out to be one of the most unexpected runs of the season. Read up on the first three Challenger Tour events of 2025:
Challenger Tour Recap: Week One
Canberra
Ethan Quinn had one of the best weeks of his career when he triumphed in Champaign without dropping a set to end his 2024 season. The Canberra draw was so stacked that he needed to beat Paul Jubb and Daniel Evans only to get through the qualifying. As it turned out, Quinn’s form continued as he found himself on 11 wins in a row by the time he made the final. He was always beaten by his nemesis Patrick Kypson in the second round (head-to-head is now 2-5) as his compatriot had a match point while serving for the win at 6-3 5-4.
Another player on his way to producing a winning streak was Joao Fonseca, who claimed the title at the 2024 Next Gen Finals just a few weeks before the start of the new season. The monstrous form that the Brazilian showed there was kept up by him in Canberra, as he didn’t even require a tie-break to make the final. Harold Mayot and Duje Ajdukovic broke him two times each, but the improved serving of the youngster showed up in routine wins over Mackenzie McDonald and Jacob Fearnley.
Fonseca’s floor on serve/return has improved so much by now, and even if he’s going to have a weaker performance sometime soon, it won’t be easy to stop him. Quinn was much more of a ticking bomb between the two and couldn’t offer much threat to the Brazilian but for his first delivery. Fonseca capped off the perfect week with a 2nd Challenger title and a 6-4 6-4 win. He is closing in on the Top 100 as both players will now head to Melbourne for Australian Open qualifying.
Noumea
Shintaro Mochizuki‘s draw opened up a bit with the elimination of Jesper de Jong and he took advantage by beating the Dutchman’s conqueror, Andre Ilagan, from 6-7 1-3 down in the second round. The Japanese had a pretty poor 2024 campaign but was able to make his first Challenger final since April 2023 in Noumea. His biggest win on the way had him defeating No. 6 seed Jurij Rodionov in the semifinals.
Moerani Bouzige produced one of the craziest final runs ever on the Challenger Tour – just 2-7 on the circuit coming into this week, he produced three Top 200 wins on the way to the championship match (#104 Marton Fucsovics, #160 Elmer Moller, #188 Constant Lestienne). The Australian had already produced a Noumea upset in 2024 (#175 Hugo Grenier) but took it to a whole new level here. Against Moller and Lestienne, he had to come back from a set down.
It was one step too far for Bouzige’s cinderella run. Mochizuki was on top of him early and enjoyed how easy it was for him to get the first strike on the second serve return (17/22 points won). The Japanese rushed his opponent in a way that previous opponents didn’t and made sure to close down the net as soon as he could. Mochizuki claimed his second Challenger title 6-1 6-3 and is currently the first player out of the Australian Open qualifying cut. If he won’t make it, both players will probably take the week off.
Nonthaburi
Aslan Karatsev started his 2025 campaign ranked World No. 287 after going just 12-18 in the past season with just one Challenger quarterfinal in Bratislava. The Russian was back to his best from the very first match, though, with his most competitive encounter on the way to the final being a 6-4 6-3 win over Gonzalo Oliveira. He completely outplayed his other opponents, including Benjamin Hassan and the resurgent qualifier Kimmer Coppejans.
Gregoire Barrere had a pretty average 2024 run with a main tour semifinal in Bucharest but topped at the same stage of a Challenger event. The Frenchman also mentioned struggling with his motivation and even contemplating retirement. As the second seed in Nonthaburi, he was able to make his first final in almost two years with four consecutive wins with one tie-break each. The closest of these battles saw him save one match point against Rei Sakamoto, snapping the 10-match win streak of the 2024 Australian Open junior champion.
Barrere gave Karatsev his toughest challenge of the week, battling hard and pressuring the opponent with his flat ball-striking. The opening set came down to just a few points as the Frenchman lost his first tie-break of the week (was 0-4) before an ultra-aggressive return game from Karatsev allowed him to avoid trouble in the second set at 2-4 down. The Russian claimed his 4th Challenger title 7-6 7-5 and will be the favorite to claim another title in the next event in Nonthaburi. Meanwhile, Barrere heads to Melbourne for Australian Open qualifying.
Events held this week:
- Bangkok Open 2 (Nonthaburi, Challenger 75, hard)
- Lexus Nottingham Challenger (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
- Oeiras Indoor 1 (Challenger 75, indoor hard)
In the week of Australian Open qualifying, there will be no Top 100 players in action. Top 120 players Hamad Medjedovic and Alexander Ritschard decided to skip going to Australia in favor of appearing in Oeiras.
First-round matches to watch:
Nonthaburi
- (5) Marek Gengel vs Hiroki Moriya
- Aslan Karatsev vs (4) Yan Bai
Nottingham
- (5) Dino Prizmic vs (PR) Kalin Ivanovski
- Dennis Novak vs (2) Edas Butvilas
Oeiras
- Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc vs (4) Denis Yevseyev
- (5) Liam Draxl vs J.J. Wolf
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea – USA TODAY Sports
