Murkel Dellien and Hugo Dellien were the two winners in the short Romanian Challenger Tour swing, while Benjamin Bonzi found his form again by claiming in the title in Winnipeg. Meanwhile, Federico Agustin Gomez was on fire in a series of events in Italy and Roberto Carballes Baena took care of the stacked Braunschweig draw as the top seed. Read back on last week’s action:
Top-seeded Roberto Carballes Baena came back to Braunschweig six years after reaching the quarterfinals in 2018. The Spaniard didn’t get an easy opening draw and was under pressure early in the deciding set against Rudolf Molleker, but managed to win the last four games from 2-3 down. In just his third Challenger appearance of the season, he took down Cristian Garin in a quarterfinal thriller and beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert to make the final.
Other than two Challenger 175 appearances earlier this year, Botic van de Zandschulp hadn’t played a “regular” event at this level since his breakout US Open run in 2021. But down to world #97, the Dutchman might have to appear on the Challenger Tour from time to time again. Throughout the week his lack of confidence was as apparent as his weight of shot being a huge factor at this level. Only Pedro Cachin was able to take a set off him on the way to the final and that was after van de Zandschulp missed four match points in the second set.
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The final was just a flawless display of grinding from Carballes Baena. He was deadly in waiting out van de Zandschulp’s errors, but also constructed points extremely well with precise forehands if anything dropped shot. The Spaniard picked up his 12th Challenger title (all on clay) 6-1 6-3 and will attempt to use that rhythm at the ATP 250 in Bastad this week, while the runner-up is playing at the same level in Gstaad.
Alexander Ritschard has been on fire since the green clay swing with the missed opportunities in Slam qualifying draws being his only letdown in the past couple of months. He took the title in Savannah and made the Heilbronn final, before making his way into another championship match in Salzburg. The Swiss blasted dangerous opponents in Bernabe Zapata Miralles and Jerome Kym off the court before upsetting top-seeded Federico Coria and fending off the talented 19-year-old Ignacio Buse.
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Kyrian Jacquet missed almost four months due to injury after the Australian Open, which really stopped him in his tracks. But it didn’t take him too long to find some form as he made the quarterfinals in Prostejov and the semifinals in Lyon. The Frenchman took it to the next level in Salzburg, posting a couple of massive wins over Taro Daniel and Thiago Monteiro. It was actually the home crowd favorites that were giving him more trouble than these experienced stars, but he beat Sandro Kopp and Lukas Neumayer in three sets.
Ritschard’s power-hitting was a problem for Jacquet right away, up until 6-4 6-1 the Swiss was winning about 80% of his total points on serve and not giving his opponent any looks. He did have a minor blip right there but it was too late to matter as he picked up his third Challenger title (second of 2024) 6-4 6-2. Ritschard will break the Top 150 and had to withdraw from Bastad qualifying due to his run here, will likely be back at another ATP 250 in Kitzbuhel or Atlanta. Jacquet is featured in the main draw in Amersfoort this week.
Hugo Dellien’s brother, Murkel, won Brasov in the first part of this small Romanian swing on the Challenger Tour. With that he edged ahead of his sibling in the Live Rankings by just two points, but it wasn’t long before the more experienced of the two fought back. The Bolivian defeated Robert Strombachs and Valentin Royer in deciding set battles, while also stopping youngsters Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and Abdullah Shelbayh to make his first Challenger final of the year.
Javier Barranco Cosano had been 0-5 in Challenger Tour semifinals, including two this year (lost to Pedro Martinez in Tenerife and Nick Hardt in Barcelona). The Spaniard owns 15 ITF Tour titles and has been looking for that breakthrough at the higher level for ages. It finally came for him with the run in Iasi as he took down four opponents in a row without dropping a set. Only Juan Pablo Ficovich and Enzo Couacaud managed to get him to one tiebreak each.
Most of the finals last week just weren’t that entertaining with Iasi being pretty much the same. Barranco Cosano was trying to play pretty aggressively and avoid getting dragged around the court by the bouncy topspin forehand of Dellien, but to no avail as the control of his shots suffered greatly when he tried to dictate. The Bolivian claimed his 10th Challenger title 6-1 6-1 and followed up his brother in dominating the Romanian swing. He had to withdraw from Gstaad ATP 250 qualifying but picked up a special exempt for Amersfoort, while the runner-up takes a week off before appearing in Tampere.
Federico Agustin Gomez has been on fire the last few weeks, picking up his maiden Challenger title in Milan. It was only Marcello Serafini who took him down in Modena with the Argentinian running pretty low on steam by then. He gathered up his energy again for Trieste and came out on top of four opponents in a row without dropping a set. Only Alibek Kachmazov took him to a tiebreak with Gomez beating him 7-6 7-6.
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Despite breaking the 5op 100 at the very start of the year (during a week he actually didn’t gain points in), 2024 hasn’t been too kind to Tomas Barrios Vera. Down to world #196 and with just two Challenger quarterfinals for the season, the Chilean fought back hard in Trieste and simply dominated all of his opponents on the way to the final. It was only the Modena runner-up, Federico Arnaboldi, who managed to take five games in a set against him.
Gomez just wasn’t going to be stopped in Trieste and that’s despite Barrios Vera entering the final in such good form. But on the day, the Chilean wasn’t executing his attacking combinations that well and his opponent was also faring well in all that reactive play he’s not exactly accustomed to. After another phenomenal performance, Gomez would claim his second Challenger title 6-1 6-2 with his US Open qualifying spot now secured. The champion, interestingly, isn’t signed up for any events in the next few weeks, while Barrios Vera is in the main draw in Amersfoort.
Up until the semifinal in Ilkley, Benjamin Bonzi was having a horrible time on tour in 2024, making just one other semi in Split and posting lots of opening-round losses. The improvement wasn’t temporary though and the Frenchman was able to prove that in Winnipeg. He raced through his first three matches with zero issues and it was only Bu Yunchaokete who pushed him to the brink. The Chinese even held a match point in the second set (unforced error), but fell apart completely in the decider (total points won 24-2 for Bonzi).
Sho Shimabukuro has been struggling most of the season as well and is now fighting to get himself into US Open qualifying this month. That’s because he had only picked up one Challenger quarterfinal all year before Winnipeg (Gwangju). The 26-year-old had a solid performance at Wimbledon though and carried that momentum over to Canada with three consecutive straight-set wins. In the semifinals, he defeated two-time year-end NCAA No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri.
It was an entertaining final with both players producing a similar brand of tennis. They were looking to take the ball early and approach the net, but also coming up with great passes on the run and defensive gets if the other was attacking in that rally. Bonzi emerged victorious in that contest thanks to a couple of clutch break point saves at 4-all in the third with Shimabukuro spraying simple errors in the next game. The Frenchman claimed his ninth Challenger title 5-7 6-1 6-4 as both finalists are now heading to Granby.
Adam Walton (Granby) will be the only Top 100 player in action.
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Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
