This year’s ATP Challenger Tour 175 events, the highest category of tournaments at that level, featured #NextGenATP Arthur Fils lifting the Bordeaux crown on home soil, Nuno Borges successfully defending his title in Phoenix and Francisco Passaro accomplishing a rare feat in Turin.
To mark the end of the 2024 season, ATPTour.com highlights the five players who won Challenger 175 trophies this year.
Fils’ ‘perfect week’ in Bordeaux
The 20-year-old Frenchman entered the BNP Paribas Primrose on a three-match skid, but Fils quickly found his form and returned to the winner’s circle. Fils defeated Spaniard Pedro Martinez 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
“It was a perfect week for me, had some tough matches against tough opponents but I’m really happy to win this tournament,” Fils said at the time. Fils won two ATP 500 titles this year, lifting the trophy in Hamburg and Tokyo.
The runaway leader in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Fils will be in action this week at the 20-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF. Fils is aiming to go one step further than last year’s runner-up finish.
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Tabilo’s dream month
Chilean Alejandro Tabilo won’t soon forget his dream 2024 season, which started with a title run at the ATP 250 in Auckland, his first tournament of the year. In May, the lefty was crowned champion at the Aix-en-Provence Challenger. Tabilo downed Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-2 in the final, during which the Chilean did not face a break point, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
Exactly seven days later, all eyes were on Tabilo as he stunned Novak Djokovic at the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome, where the Serbian has lifted the trophy six times. Again, Tabilo did not face a break point against Djokovic and rode the form of his life to a surprise semi-final run, falling to eventual champion Alexander Zverev.
Tabilo found success on all three surfaces this past season, from the Auckland hard courts, to the French clay and then on the Mallorcan grass. The 27-year-old won the ATP 250 in Mallorca in June and rose inside the Top 20 for the first time.
Borges defends Phoenix crown
When it comes to the Arizona Tennis Classic, Portugal’s 27-year-old Borges is unbeatable. The Maia native successfully defended his title, ousting Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 7-6(4) in the championship match. The Italian Berrettini was playing his first tournament following a six-month injury layoff.
“I started the week with not the greatest practises, I wasn’t feeling my best. Then I started getting confidence throughout the tournament with the matches and really just impressed myself with how I dealt with all the adversity,” said Borges, who has won 12 of his past 13 Challenger-level matches, dating back to November 2023. He won his home tournament, the Maia Open, that month to close his 2023 season.
At the Australian Open, Borges became just the second Portuguese player — male or female — to reach the fourth round of a major (Joao Sousa, two times). The former Mississippi State University star repeated that feat at the US Open. Both runs were ended by Daniil Medvedev. Borges also won his maiden ATP Tour title this season in Bastad, where he eased past Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
<img alt=”Nuno Borges wins the ATP Challenger Tour 175 title in Phoenix for a second consecutive year.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/03/18/02/42/borges-phoenixch-2024-trophy.jpg” />
Nuno Borges wins the ATP Challenger Tour 175 title in Phoenix for a second consecutive year. Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour
Navone notches biggest career title
It was a breakthrough season for Mariano Navone, who captured his biggest career title at the Sardegna Open. Last year’s Challenger season leader with five titles, Navone capped the Cagliari week with a 7-5, 6-1 victory against home favourite Musetti.
The Cagliari final between Navone and Musetti marked the first title match at that level between two Top 50 players since 2009, when No. 26 Robin Soderling defeated No. 22 Tomas Berdych in Sunrise.
Navone’s triumph helped him become the first player in the Open Era to be seeded in his first major main draw, Roland Garros. Navone’s historic first showing in Paris was also aided by final runs at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro and the ATP 250 in Bucharest.
Passaro punches his name in record books
The Italian Passaro enjoyed a memorable run in Turin, where he became the first player since Soderling in 2009 (referenced earlier in Navone’s title run) to defeat five Top 100 players en route to a Challenger trophy.
Due to rain throughout the week, Passaro pulled double duty on Saturday, spending more than three-and-a-half hours on court as he downed Brandon Nakashima in the quarter-finals and Lorenzo Sonego in the last four. Then, the wild card defeated top seed Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-5 in Sunday’s championship match.
Passaro, who arrived in Turin following a surprise third-round run at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome as a qualifier, claimed a total of 245 points from both tournaments combined. That haul was enough to propel Passaro from No. 240 in the PIF ATP Rankings to No. 133.
“Simply unbelievable,” Passaro said. “I’m really happy to have my best level back, and even more about my attitude between Rome and Turin. It’s been a long time since I’ve played 10 matches in a short period of time like this.”
Did You Know?
Tabilo, Borges and Fils were three of the six players who won titles on both the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour in 2024. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Luciano Darderi and Benjamin Bonzi also accomplished the feat.
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