Among the many stories on the Challenger Tour circuit this week, one of the most interesting was the event in Piracicaba being forced to move to an indoor venue in Sao Paulo mid-week due to constant rain. But the sporting value delivered, too, with Ugo Blanchet’s mastery of deciding set tie-breaks in Koblenz and Tristan Schoolkate, turning his Australian Open momentum into a Brisbane run. Meanwhile, University of Arizona’s Colton Smith became a maiden champion at this level. Read up on last week’s action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Koblenz
Ugo Blanchet started the season with a couple of early losses in Australia, but he quickly improved his level when he returned to indoor courts in Europe. The Frenchman picked up a Top 100 win over Thiago Seyboth Wild in Quimper, before going on a big run in Koblenz. This one was all about trusting his forehand in the big moments with consecutive deciding tie-break wins over Max Hans Rehberg and Matteo Martineau. Against Rehberg, he even had to save a match point.
Luca Nardi changed his schedule late and had to ask for a qualifying wildcard in Koblenz despite being ranked World No. 83. When he joined the main draw, he was actually 110 spots higher than the top seed, World No. 193 Henri Squire. Even qualifying was no bed of roses as Nardi fought off a couple of break points at 5-all in the 3rd set against Tom Gentzsch. But that was the only set he lost on the way to the final as he progressively kept upping the standard along with getting more and more used to the pretty unique conditions in Koblenz.
Blanchet pulled off a brilliant stretch of games to win the opener from 1-3 down but shot himself in the foot with three double faults to get broken. The players ended up stuck in a tight decider, and it looked like Nardi was about to put the final nail in the coffin when he broke at 5-all in the 3rd. Blanchet was not to be denied this week as he broke back (with a crazy point defending two smashes) and won his 3rd deciding tie-break of the week. It’s his 2nd Challenger title as he took the match 6-3 3-6 7-6(5). He’ll take the week off while Nardi takes a special exempt into Lille.
Piracicaba
Roman Andres Burruchaga lost in the second round at Buenos Aires and Punta del Este to begin his Golden Swing campaign. The Argentinian avoided the same feat this week with a tight win against Mateus Alves with that match already finished indoors in Sao Paulo (the entire event was moved there due to extreme rain). Burruchaga then beat defending champion Camilo Ugo Carabelli via retirement before taking out Gustavo Heide in a three-hour classic.
Facundo Mena tends to be dangerous in altitude conditions, and while not many were looking at him before the week, the event moving indoors gave his game an even bigger boost. He defeated Andrea Pellegrino and Federico Coria on Saturday, posting ridiculous serving stats in the latter match considering who his opponent was (14 aces, only one break point saved). Mena kept rolling with a win from a set down against Hugo Dellien in the semifinals.
Having already spent over three hours on the court earlier that day, Burruchaga’s chances to win the final seemed pretty slim. But he stole the opener, saving three set points, and despite looking on his last legs, always kept himself within touching distance. It took a while, but after over 3.5 hours, they finally reached a third-set tie-break. Burruchaga claimed his first Challenger Tour title 7-6(8) 6-7(6) 7-6(4), saving a match point at 5-6 in the decider. He overcame a 0-2 record in finals and spent 6 hours 47 minutes on court on Sunday. Both finalists are now expected in Rosario, Mena, on a special exempt.
Brisbane
Marek Gengel won nine ITF titles last year, one short of the record set by Dragos Nicolae Madaras in 2023. The Czech kept coming back to his favorite venue in Sharm el Sheikh (he claimed all trophies there, all M15 level) and was winning events until mid-December. The goal had to be to take it up a notch this year, and that’s what he did in Brisbane. Gengel was the only non-Australian player left in the quarterfinals of this event, beating Blake Ellis and Omar Jasika to make his first Challenger final.
Tristan Schoolkate was one of just two players to take a set off eventual champion Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open and was able to use that confidence to go on a run in Brisbane. Despite a tricky opener against Yi Zhou, the 23-year-old kept progressing through the draw until he met Adam Walton, who won the Burnie Challenger held this time last year. Schoolkate tied up the head-to-head record with his compatriot at 3-3, coming back from a 3-5 deficit in the deciding set tie-break.
Schoolkate started a bit slow with a few double faults and avoiding going down a double break was crucial for him. Gengel’s aggressive returning is usually a big factor, but it was less and less effective once the Australian started serving better. The Czech did have an opportunity on his opponent’s 2nd delivery at 3-4 in the 2nd, but in the end, it was just Schoolkate claiming his 2nd Challenger title 7-6(3) 7-6(4). He moves a bit deeper inside the Top 150 as both finalists are also playing in the next event in Brisbane.
Cleveland
University of Arizona’s Colton Smith made his first pro appearance of 2025 in Cleveland after dominating a UTR event at the start of January. The 21-year-old had an impressive streak of putting very powerful opponents on the back foot a lot more than they would like, starting from No. 3 seed Ethan Quinn in the opening round. It was the only set he lost on the way to the final, with Smith pulling off the upset over Ohio native J. J. Wolf on Saturday.
Eliot Spizzirri won a match each in his first two appearances of the season at the Australian Open qualifying and in Nonthaburi. But he didn’t properly get going until Cleveland with a second-round win over the returning Michael Mmoh. The 23-year-old just felt like a more dynamic version of a similar game in that match before breaking back at 4-5 in the 3rd to survive James Trotter in the quarterfinals. That was a key win, with Spizziri struggling to return any serves for a set and a half until suddenly being in half of Trotter’s games for the rest of the match.
Smith’s pace and deadly redirections down the line were proving devastating in the opening set, but Spizzirri wasn’t going to make things that easy for him. The 23-year-old was doing everything possible to fire back, take over the initiative, and wrap up points at the net. For a while he was successful, but Smith had enough to power through in the end and claim his first Challenger Tour title 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3. Despite college limiting his schedule, he is already inside the Top 300, but he likely won’t get to play any pro events soon. Spizzirri is on a tight schedule as he’s in the draw in Tenerife this week.
Events held this week:
- Play In Challenger (Lille, Challenger 125, indoor hard)
- YPF Rosario Challenger (Challenger 125, clay)
- Chennai Open (Challenger 100, hard)
- Brisbane QTC Tennis International #2 (Challenger 75, hard)
- Tenerife Challenger 1 (Challenger 75, hard)
Top 100 players in action:
- Benjamin Bonzi, Luca Nardi (Lille)
- Sebastian Baez, Alexandre Muller, Francisco Comesana, Damir Dzumhur, Francesco Passaro, Federico Coria (Rosario)
- Adam Walton (Brisbane)
First-round matches to watch:
Lille
- (1/WC) Benjamin Bonzi vs Pierre-Hugues Herbert
- (4) Kamil Majchrzak vs Luca Van Assche
Rosario
- Daniel Elahi Galan vs (5) Francesco Passaro
- (6) Camilo Ugo Carabelli vs (WC) Diego Schwartzman
This is Diego Schwartzman’s penultimate appearance before he wraps up his career in Buenos Aires the following week.
Chennai
- (3) Duje Ajdukovic vs Elias Ymer
- Khumoyun Sultanov vs Dalibor Svrcina
Brisbane
- Maxime Janvier vs (3) Alex Bolt
- (WC) Jason Kubler vs (2) Tristan Schoolkate
Tenerife
- Giulio Zeppieri vs (6) Vilius Gaubas
- (WC) Inaki Montes-de la Torre vs (2) Emil Ruusuvuori
Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran – USA TODAY Sports
