Luxembourg got only their second Challenger Tour champion this week (first since 2014), while a third-ever player from Thailand triumphed at this level (first since 2012). Meanwhile, James Duckworth added to his extremely large trophy cabinet with Elmer Moller continuing his clay expertise and Terence Atmane finding success in the Asian swing again. Read up on last week’s Challenger Tour action:
Challenger Tour Weekly Recap
Busan
Adam Walton chose to compete in the Asian swing instead of playing the clay season after already winning the Brisbane-2 Challenger earlier this year. His consistency at the Challenger level has been incredible over the last few years and as the top seed in Busan, we expected nothing less. Walton provided, defeating defending champion Uchiyama in the quarterfinals and then surviving a crazy match against Kubler. After 3 hours and 27 minutes of action, he came from 0-5 in the deciding set to win 7-6(6) 6-7(3) 7-5.
Terence Atmane needed a run, coming into Busan with a 6-12 record for the season. The Asian swing had been kind to him before with 2 Challenger titles in China in 2023 and the decision quickly paid off this time as well. He was struggling to maintain a consistent level throughout the match, but he won three consecutive encounters despite dropping the second set every time. The Frenchman posted his first win over Brandon Holt in five meetings in the semifinals to reach his first final since July.
Walton started a bit slow after yesterday’s marathon and Atmane didn’t need much more to start dominating with his all-court style. The Australian briefly threatened a comeback when he saved himself from going down two breaks at 2-4 15-40 in the second set, later getting to a break point with a 30-shot rally won on a passing shot. But Atmane clinched his third Challenger title 6-3 6-4, turning his season around in Asia again. Both finalists are expected to appear in Gwangju this week.
Oeiras
Francisco Comesana won this tournament in 2024, bouncing back from a rough start to the season and breaking the Top 100. Back then he needed a couple of massive comebacks to make the final (against Elias Ymer and Jaime Faria), this time it didn’t get quite so dramatic. While he lost his opening set of the week against Gastao Elias, he kept improving with every performance and eventually took apart Carlos Taberner 6-1 6-2 to reach the Oeiras final again.
Elmer Moller has really upped his game with the start of the clay season and he keeps making waves. Oeiras this week was a pretty uncomfortable event for many players with windy conditions and lots of rain delays. But the Dane held firm despite a match he should have closed out in two sets against Thiago Monteiro before getting some help with Mikhail Kukushkin withdrawing ahead of their clash. Moller then took out No. 2 seed Roman Safiullin to make the final.
Moller’s backhand is already one of the best in the business and this final was no exception. From the very first game he just started hitting winners left and right and it took Comesana so much time to properly settle down and start adjusting. Despite a brief fightback, it was Moller who claimed his second Challenger title 6-0 6-4 and now finds himself just 75 points outside the Top 100 with some opportunities to get there in the coming weeks. First, both finalists will head to the ATP 1000 in Madrid. Comesana is a direct acceptance, while the Dane has to get through qualifying.
San Luis Potosi
James Duckworth was the runner-up at another Mexican Challenger in Morelia recently, but lost in the second round when he switched to clay in Mexico City. The Australian was once again top-seeded in San Luis Potosi and while he didn’t drop a set on the way to the final, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t pushed. But in long 10-8 (against Dan Martin) and 9-7 (against Alfredo Perez) tie-breaks, he only needed to save one set point combined. Duckworth reached his first clay final since Bautou 2019.
Max Wiskandt had never reached a semifinal at the Challenger level before and after losing in qualifying for Mexico City, he started this run with deciding set tie-break wins over former World No. 17 Adrian Mannarino and Rodrigo Alujas. The path of upsets continued as he clawed his way back from a 0-2 deficit in the third set against Santiago Rodriguez Taverna and then took down one of the biggest altitude specialists, Juan Pablo Ficovich. By making the final, he secured a Top 400 debut.
It was a great effort from Wiskandt to get to the final, but once he was there he didn’t know what hit him. The situation was a little much probably and Duckworth just came in with all that experience to not give him any room to breathe. The Australian grabbed his 16th Challenger title 6-1 6-1 in just 49 minutes and is now one trophy shy of the biggest haul among active players (17 – Bagnis and M. Gonzalez, but the latter is only active in doubles now). He will now take a week of rest before joining the Asian swing in Guanghzhou, while Wiskandt took a special exempt for Savannah.
Tallahassee
Chris Rodesch had to produce a run during either of the first two green clay events to secure his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros qualifying. He couldn’t do much in Sarasota, drawing the unstoppable Emilio Nava in the opening round. But as it turned out, the Luxembourger only needed a more manageable set of opponents to get back on track. By making the semifinals, he made sure that he’ll be in Paris before reaching his second Challenger final (2024 Drummondville).
Speaking of Emilio Nava, he just kept going and maintained his incredible streaks. By the time he reached the final, he found himself on 19 wins in a row and 34 consecutive sets. After going 3-0 in tie-breaks in Sarasota, the 23-year-old wasn’t taken to even one of them as he quickly ripped through the draw. This run, and especially taking out Murphy Cassone in the quarterfinals, put him in a very strong position in the USTA Roland Garros wildcard race (but there are still two more weeks left).
For a set and a half, it was looking like another Nava beatdown. But Rodesch got himeslf out of trouble with some clutch shots early in the second set, before finally getting the American to leak some +1 errors and ending his set streak at 35. He didn’t stop there, returning extremely well to not only extend the points but also threaten to seize control. Rodesch claimed his first Challenger title 4-6 6-3 6-4 and became the second Luxembourger to win a trophy at this level (11 – Gilles Muller, most recently in 2014). Both finalists are signed up for Savannah this week.
Abidjan
The veteran Ricardas Berankis was getting a bit of form going with a semifinal in Quimper at the start of the season, but then won just one match in the Challenger 50 double in Hersonissos. Back on court in Abidjan at an event of the same category, he survived a few difficult encounters to make his first final since June. The 34-year-old dropped the opening set against Aryan Shah before getting involved in 2.5+ hour matches with Belgians Michael Geerts and Tibo Colson.
Maximus Jones is on the rise this year, making the quarterfinals in Nonthaburi in January and then the semifinals in Brazzaville the month after. The 20-year-old has been travelling the world pretty extensively over the last few weeks, eventually landing in Abidjan. Coming from the qualifying and surviving a deciding set tie-break against Kris van Wyk in main draw round one, Jones eventually produced a final run and became the first Thai to make it this deep in a Challenger since Danai Udomchoke in 2012.
Berankis had issues handling the bullet first serve of Jones and wasn’t doing much better returning the second delivery either. But he always had the edge off the ground and from the middle of the second set, it seemed like he did enough to crack the Thai and turn this around. Suddenly, he began spraying in the 3-3 game in the decider and Jones took advantage to clinch his first Challenger title 6-3 4-6 6-4, becoming the third Thai player to claim a trophy at this level after Udomchoke (9) and Srichaphan (1). Both finalists are competing in the second event in Abidjan, the champion with a special exempt.
Challenger Tour events held this week:
Gwangju Open (Challenger 75, hard)
Savannah Challenger (Challenger 75, green clay)
Cote d’Ivoire Open 2 (Abidjan, Challenger 50, hard)
Roma Garden Open (Rome, Challenger 50, clay)
AAT Challenger Santander Tucuman (San Miguel de Tucuman, Challenger 50, clay)
Adam Walton (Gwangju) is the only Top 100 player in action with the ATP 1000 Madrid held in this week.
First-round matches to watch:
Gwangju
(PR) Jason Kubler vs (WC) Soonwoo Kwon
(4) Tristan Schoolkate vs Rei Sakamoto
Constant Lestienne vs (WC) Hyeon Chung
Savannah
(3) Emilio Nava vs Joel Schwaerzler
(8) Bernard Tomic vs Michael Mmoh
Andres Andrade vs (2) Federico Agustin Gomez
Abidjan
(3) Michael Geerts vs Tibo Colson
(5) Ricardas Berankis vs (WC) Benoit Paire
Rome
(1) Vilius Gaubas vs Khumoyun Sultanov
Andrea Pellegrino vs (WC) Jacopo Vasami
(ALT) Mili Poljicak vs (5) Lukas Neumayer
San Miguel de Tucuman
(WC) Facundo Bagnis vs Gonzalo Villanueva
Mariano Kestelboim vs (2) Alvaro Guillen Meza
Main Photo Credit: David Kirouac – USA TODAY Sports