How American Boyer has an Argentine flair
A late-season swing on South American clay courts is not where you typically find an American competing on the ATP Challenger Tour. But for California-native Tristan Boyer, he felt right at home playing on the red clay outside of the traditional season, visiting countries including Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay.
Within the past month, Boyer was the lone American in the singles main draw of the Campinas and Montevideo Challengers. Who won the trophy at each of those events? The 23-year-old Boyer, who this year tied the Challenger record for most match wins by an American in a single season (44).
“It’s definitely the best I’ve ever been playing,” Boyer told ATPTour.com. “It feels unbelievable, as you could imagine. Ending the year with a title is crazy. I called my coach [Alejandro Fabbri] right after and he was like, ‘Yeah, you should appreciate this. Not a lot of people end the year by winning a title’.”
[ATP APP]Boyer turned professional in 2022 after one season at Stanford University and as recently as March 2023, he did not have a PIF ATP Ranking. Now at World No. 134, Boyer is the first American to win a trio of clay-court Challengers in a calendar year. His first triumph came in March in Merida, Mexico.
What has helped Boyer become a natural on the surface that can be a foe to many Americans? It starts with Boyer’s junior coach Zibu Ncube, who hails from Zimbabwe. The Los Angeles-based coach began importing red clay from Europe.
“When he bought the court, it played like a green clay court. It was. Then he started importing real, brick red clay. He ships it from Italy,” Boyer said. “It’s like a real red clay court. That’s what I played on from when I was 16 until like 17 and a half.
“In the winter, it’s a little tough. It gets a little damp and soggy, but in the summer it plays like a European red clay court, which is awesome. When I need a clay court in L.A., I still go there. Since I was 16, I’ve probably played more on clay than on hard courts. I like it a lot. Probably not more than hard court, but maybe just as much.”
<img alt=”Tristan Boyer in action at the Campinas Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/21/03/59/boyer-campinasch-2024.jpg” />
Tristan Boyer in action at the Campinas Challenger. Credit: João Pires
Boyer is still based in the States, but he spends a fair share of time in Argentina, where he is set for three weeks of preseason training with his team. Boyer’s coach, Fabbri, has worked with a list of players including Diego Schwartzman, Leonardo Mayer, Victor Estrella Burgos, Federico Coria and Hugo Dellien — the 31-year-old whom the American beat in the Montevideo final.
Boyer’s hitting partner when he warmed up for two of his five matches in Montevideo was former football star Diego Forlan, the Uruguayan who was making his professional tennis debut that week, playing doubles alongside Coria.
“He’s a super, super nice guy,” Boyer said of Forlan. “And a solid tennis player, able to warm me up, just as good as an average sparring partner. Pretty impressive honestly.”
What adds another humorous twist to Boyer’s run in South America is that Fabbri also coaches Argentine Juan Pablo Ficovich, who was competing on hard courts in the United States for two weeks while the American battled on red clay. “That was funny,” Boyer said. In October, Boyer beat Ficovich in the Campinas Challenger final.
Following his Montevideo triumph, Boyer addressed the crowd in Spanish, a language he learned in school and has refined through his time in South America. He capped his standout season with a 44-23 record at the Challenger level. Kevin Kim is the only other American to have recorded 44 match wins (2004) on the ATP Challenger Tour.
<img alt=”Tristan Boyer wins the Montevideo Challenger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/11/25/22/18/boyer-montevideoch-2024-check.jpg” />
Tristan Boyer wins the Montevideo Challenger. Credit: Uruguay Open
“I think one of the keys that I’m extremely grateful for is that I was healthy all year. That was really, really key,” said Boyer, who sat out nearly the entire 2022 season due to a bone edema injury in his left foot. “That was one of the goals we had at the beginning of the year, playing the whole season and not having to skip any tournaments for injuries. My physical training team — Tennis Training Pro in Buenos Aires — always does really, really good work.”
Boyer is always quick to credit his entire team for his success and as he looks ahead to next year, he is determined to build off his Challenger breakthrough.
“The next goal is Top 100, rankings wise,” Boyer said. “Being the best I can be is always the goal. Doing the right things, process wise. Making the right decisions in terms of what we are working on, how we are getting better to make sure we can keep on the right path and the results will show at some point.”
Did You Know?
Boyer and Frances Tiafoe are the only Americans to win three clay-court Challengers in the past 10 years. Tiafoe won two in 2017 and one in 2020.