After a period of struggle, Alex Molcan is back with his first Challenger title in almost four years. Meanwhile, Moez Echargui continued his remarkable run of form by winning his 17th match and third trophy in a row (two of them at the Challenger level) and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe showed he’s still got it in Augsburg. Here’s a look back at last week’s action:
Sofia
Joel Schwaerzler’s form has been better since he had to drop down to the ITF Tour for a bit after not defending his Skopje title in May. He got the extra match practice and grew as a player. While he wasn’t able to show it in the first event in Sofia, the second was a masterclass. From a tough opener against Duje Ajdukovic, the Austrian played his tennis with higher margin for error than usual. It led to not dropping a set in four matches as the 19-year-old reached his second Challenger final.
Molcan had to start from qualifying, but that wasn’t a problem for the former world #58, who had been slowly regaining his form this season. Only Wimbledon junior champion Ivan Ivanov came any close to winning a set against him in six matches, getting to a tie-break. Molcan kept beating talented youngsters like Alexander Vasilev or Matej Dodig and reached his first Challenger final since November 2021 in Helsinki (before two ATP Tour finals in 2022).
It was a wild first set with Schwaerzler first going up 3-0, then down 3-5 0-40, saving himself with a dead net cord set point down and leveling up. But while the youngster was so up and down, also emotionally, Molcan stood strong and showed the value of his experience. He was soon fully in control and raced to his 3rd Challenger title 7-5 6-4, which allows him to rejoin the top 300. Both players decided to pull out from Como qualifying and will take a week of rest before returning in next clay Challengers.
Augsburg
Former world #71 Stebe has been struggling with injuries his entire career and while he won a Challenger title as recently as September 2022 in Como, he then missed virtually the entire 2023-24 seasons (only played two matches in total). But now he’s mounting up another comeback and after reaching the semifinals in Cordenons recently, he went even further here. It wouldn’t be possible if not for a remarkable thriller against Buvaysar Gadamauri in the second round with Stebe saving two match points.
Alexander Ritschard had much bigger aspirations for this season after breaking the top 100 last year, but then didn’t win a single match between the middle of January and Augsburg. Suddenly turning things around was a great effort, especially as rain delays kind of ruined his scheduling (while the other players were not having the same issues). On Thursday he finished his second-round match and had his quarterfinals suspended, having to play twice on Friday again.
Ritschard has that thunderous power in his groundstrokes, but it wasn’t easy for him to keep it up without spraying. And the moment he took something off, Stebe was always there to take the lead with his lefty topspin and work the angles. It ended up being a relatively one-sided affair with the 34-year-old claiming his 10th Challenger title 6-3 6-3 and returning to the top 500 after doubling his ranking points this week. Both finalists are competing in Como next.
Hersonissos
Echargui became the second-oldest first-time Challenger champion a couple of weeks ago in Porto, before maintaining the win streak with an M25 Monastir title. The Tunisian took some rest and returned in Hersonissos as the top seed. It wasn’t always pretty with Jay Dylan Friend and Pavlos Tsitsipas (brother of Stefanos) going up a set against him in the first two rounds. But Echargui survived and started playing better and better as the week went on.
Dan Added was the runner-up in the first event in Hersonissos and still felt very comfortable at this venue, posting a strong win over Henry Searle before beating Ioannis Xilas in the quarterfinals for the second week straight. The Frenchman then ran into his final conqueror, Rafael Jodar, just six days later. His style got the youngster a lot more riled up this time, perfectly represented by the match ending on a point penalty for slapping the ball out of the stadium.
Echargui had recently defeated Added for the M25 Monastir title, but was struggling to do it again on Saturday with the Frenchman opening a big lead. At 5-5 he also needed assistance from the doctor, raising questions on whether he’d be able to finish the match. But as he grew stronger, Added started getting weaker. The Frenchman suffered from the heat and fatigue of playing three finals in three weeks, eventually basically collapsing on the court in the third set. Echargui won his second Challenger title 5-7 6-4 3-0 ret. with both players now set to take a week of some much-needed rest.
Events held this week:
- Como Lake Challenger (Challenger 75, clay)
- Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar (Mallorca, Challenger 75, hard)
- Clube Tenis Porto Challenger (Challenger 75, clay)
- International Challenger Zhangjiagang (Challenger 75, hard)
During the first week of the US Open there will be no top 100 players in action.
First-round matches to watch:
Como
- (1) Nicolai Budkov Kjaer vs (ALT) Cedrik-Marcel Stebe
- Alexander Ritschard vs (2) Thiago Monteiro
Mallorca
- Justin Engel vs (WC) Ivan Ivanov
- Valentin Vacherot vs (2) Martin Landaluce
Porto
- Mika Brunold vs (3/WC) Henrique Rocha
- Mili Poljicak vs (2) Guy den Ouden
Zhangjiagang
- (1) Bernard Tomic vs (PR) Philip Sekulic
- Jie Cui vs (8) Arthur Gea
Main photo credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
