Aleksandar Kovacevic hadn’t won consecutive matches since August but was able to restore his momentum on the slower indoor hard courts in Oeiras. Brandon Holt was the maiden champion for the week in Nonthaburi, while Buenos Aires ended up with a strong line-up in the Monday final. Read up on last week’s Challenger Tour action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Oeiras
Aleksandar Kovacevic needed a big result after struggling throughout the second half of 2024 and not posting consecutive wins since Cincinnati. He was on it from the get-go in Oeiras, crushing last week’s runner-up Liam Draxl and Mark Lajal. The big serve of Beibit Zhukayev wasn’t a threat to him either before Alexis Galarneau finally gave him a run for his money in the semifinals. Kovacevic made his first final since winning the Temuco title to end his 2023 campaign.
Zsombor Piros lost to eventual champion Hamad Medjedovic in the quarterfinals of the first event in Oeiras, but it was a grittier contest than the 3-6 3-6 scoreline suggested. It was the same opponent at the same stage again, with the Serbian, this time not having the legs or willpower to keep hitting through Piros anymore. The 25-year-old showed he was simply playing some great tennis these past two weeks when he produced a defensive masterclass to eliminate Mackenzie McDonald.
It was very hard not to overpress against Piros on this court, but Kovacevic was doing that pretty well and eventually got to a 6-4 3-0 lead. The Hungarian wasn’t just going to let this go, breaking twice to go 4-3 up and extracting errors with more incredible defending. But Kovacevic could rely on the power of his first serve and kept playing a pretty smart match to claim his 5th Challenger title 6-4 7-6(4). He will now travel to Quimper, while Piros intends to stay in Oeiras for one more week (but has to begin the third event in qualifying).
Nonthaburi
Vit Kopriva started the season with a quarterfinal run in Canberra before losing to Borna Gojo in a very tough Australian Open qualifying section. As the top seed in Nonthaburi, the Czech got broken three times on the way to the final, all by Nick Hardt in the opening round. He saved all 13 break points faced later on as he took down Tung-Lin Wu, Dalibor Svrcina, and Murphy Cassone (the latter two at the loss of just five games in total). Kopriva made his 2nd hard-court Challenger final after 2024 Kozerki (lost to Marc-Andrea Huesler).
Brandon Holt lost in the second round of qualifying for both the Canberra Challenger and the Australian Open, playing his first main draw of the year in Nonthaburi. The American impressively dropped just five games to Coleman Wong before losing his only set on the way to the final in an all-American clash with Zachary Svajda. But the 24-year-old didn’t face a single break point in that match and made his third Challenger final after Indian Wells and Tyler last year.
Kopriva opened the match with an early break, but his game quickly disintegrated alongside his second serve, which he couldn’t control at all for a few games. When he got out of that lull, he was already down 3-6 0-2, with his chances to come back looking pretty slim. Holt did well in the frontrunning role as he claimed his 1st Challenger title 6-3 6-2, only dropping 4 points on serve in the second set. He’ll rest for a week now before returning to action in Cleveland, while Kopriva takes time off before hoping to join the qualifying draw at the ATP 250 in Montpellier.
Buenos Aires
Adolfo Daniel Vallejo started his season with an opening-round exit in Noumea before getting through a round in Australian Open qualifying. After his Grand Slam debut, the Paraguayan went back straight to clay courts and ended up defeating three consecutive Argentinians to make the semifinals. Only Gonzalo Villanueva took a set off him as Vallejo later beat Alvaro Guillen Meza to advance to his first final since Antofagasta in September.
Juan Pablo Varillas had a very disappointing 2025 season, falling out of the Top 200. After losing a thriller to Alejandro Moro Canas in Australian Open qualifying, the Peruvian went all the way against Juan Carlos Prado Angelo in the opening round here. The comeback from 1-4 in the deciding set fueled him with confidence for the rest of the week as Varillas took down his younger compatriot Gonzalo Bueno in the semifinals, reaching his first championship match since winning Santiago in March of last year.
The final had to be postponed until Monday due to rain. Vallejo started strong with the 3-0 lead and was seemingly in control over the baseline. But he wasn’t quite ready to play at the same level of steadiness as Varillas, with too many sloppy patches and questionable shot selection. Ultimately, it was the Peruvian who turned the match around and provided an excellent tactical performance to claim his 7th Challenger title 6-4 6-4. Both players will now get just one day to fly over for the next event in Punta del Este.
Challenger Tour magic:
What’s not to love about the all-Peruvian generational battles of Varillas vs Bueno or Buse? Gonzalo with the tweener lob in the Buenos Aires semifinal
📷: @ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/cX0D77Tkfo— Damian Kust (@damiankust) January 18, 2025
Events held this week:
- Open Quimper Bretagne Occidentale (Challenger 125, indoor hard)
- Oeiras Open 3 (Challenger 100, indoor hard)
- Punta del Este Open (Challenger 75, clay)
Top 100 players in action:
- Adrian Mannarino, Thiago Seyboth Wild, Borna Coric, Otto Virtanen, Mattia Bellucci (Quimper)
- Marton Fucsovics (Oeiras)
- Federico Coria (Punta del Este)
First-round matches to watch:
Quimper
- (1/WC) Adrian Mannarino vs Mackenzie McDonald
- (5) Mattia Bellucci vs Constant Lestienne
Oeiras
- (7) Jaime Faria vs Marc-Andrea Huesler
- Alexander Blockx vs (4) Alexander Ritschard
Punta del Este
- (1) Federico Coria vs Gustavo Heide
- (7) Tomas Barrios Vera vs (ALT) Alvaro Guillen Meza
