A pair of #NextGenATP youngsters were among six ATP Challenger Tour champions last week. American Zachary Svajda rallied from a set down in the Tiburon Challenger final to collect his maiden Challenger title while Kazakhstan’s Timofey Skatov triumphed at the Parma Challenger presented by Iren.

Svajda spoiled countryman Ben Shelton’s 20th birthday Sunday, defeating the lefty 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to win in Tiburon, California.

“In the first set, Ben played lights out,” Svajda said. “I was nervous, I was getting tight, double faulting quite a bit. I knew in the second set I was going to have to change something up, try spinning my serve in so I don’t have to hit second serves and also try to put more pace on the ball. That was the momentum switch.”

The 19-year-old, who climbs to a career-high No. 255 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is the 11th teenage Challenger champion of this season. The two-time USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships titlist joins fellow San Diego native Brandon Nakashima (Quimper-2, February 2021) as the only American teenage Challenger champion in the past five years.

The title came to Svajda’s surprise. In just his seventh Challenger tournament of the year, the youngster needed a deciding set tie-break in his first two matches to stay alive.

“I wasn’t expecting to win the tournament,” Svajda said. “I could’ve been out in the first round. I could’ve been out in the second round, 1-5 in the third. I told myself, ‘Never give up and just see what happens!’”

In 2019, Svajda made his Tour-level debut at the US Open, where he squandered a two-set lead to Italian Paolo Lorenzi in the first round. The-then 16-year-old became the youngest male player to compete at the US Open since Donald Young in 2005. In 2021, Svajda earned his first Tour-level win at Flushing Meadows (d. Cecchinato), before falling short to Jannik Sinner.

Shelton, who has finished runner-up at three of his past four Challenger tournaments, rises to a career-high 160 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

At the Challenger 125 event in Parma, Italy, Skatov needed three hours, eight minutes to prevail against Slovakian Jozek Kovalik 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-4 and claim his maiden Challenger title. Skatov, who is 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan, ended Kovalik’s nine-match winning streak and is the first Kazakh Challenger champion this season.

Timofey Skatov in action at the 2022 Parma Challenger. Credit: Daniele Combi

The 21-year-old has reached at least the semi-finals in four of his past five Challenger tournaments and the title in Italy propels Skatov to a career-high No. 152. He also surged to 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan, keeping alive his outside hopes of qualifying for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.

“This week was really tough,” Skatov said. “All my matches were really long, but the best week of my life so far. This is just the beginning. I have to continue working as hard as possible.”

The ATP Challenger Tour returned to South Korea this week for the first time since May 2019. Hungarian Zsombor Piros captured the Gwangju Open Challenger title, ousting Ecuadorian Emilio Gomez in the final, 6-2, 6-4.

Piros, 22, won the Tampere Challenger in July to claim his first Challenger title. Boasting a 28-13 Challenger match record this season, Piros is the second-highest ranked Hungarian men’s player, behind Marton Fucsovics. The 2017 Australian Open boys’ singles champion rises to a career-high No. 138.

Zsombor Piros is crowned champion at the Gwangju Open Challenger.

Gomez, 30, is a six-time Challenger finalist this season and has won 17 of his past 20 Challenger-level matches, including winning the title in Winnipeg, Canada (d. Galarneau). Gomez, son of 1990 Roland Garros champion Andres Gomez, climbs to a career-high No. 98 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

In Gwangju doubles action, top seeds Nicolas Barrientos and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela won a season-leading sixth Challenger team title after defeating Indian duo Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni in a match tie-break.

At the Open de Vendee, Dutchman Jelle Sels defeated Canadian Vasek Posipisil 6-4, 6-3 to seal his first Challenger title.

“Unbelievable week,” Sels said. “I’ve played a lot of matches this past month… I felt really confident before this tournament and I just went with the flow. There was no place for doubting today.”

Jelle Sels celebrates winning a point at the Mouilleron le Captif Challenger. Credit: Nicolas Averty

In September, the 27-year-old finished runner-up at the Tulln Challenger and reached the semi-finals in Braga, Portugal. The Dutchman has won 12 of his past 14 Challenger-level matches and the title in Mouilleron le Captif, France launches him to a career-high No. 141.

Slovakian Lukas Klein dropped just one set all week to be crowned champion at the Alicante Ferrero Challenger, which is held at the JC Ferrero Equelite Sport Academy in Villena, Spain. In the championship match, the 24-year-old defeated the Dominican Republic’s Nick Hardt 6-3, 6-4.

“From the first match, I was playing better and better,” Klein said. “I was a little nervous at the end, but somehow I made it. I’m happy.”

Lukas Klein wins his second Challenger of 2022 at the Alicante Challenger.

Klein, seeded eighth, claimed his maiden Challenger title earlier this season as a qualifier in Troisdorf, Germany (d. Bergs). In June, he advanced through qualifying to make his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, where he fell short to Liam Broady in five sets.

On the clay-courts of Campinas, Brazil, British qualifier Jan Choinski defeated second seed Juan Pablo Varillas 6-4, 6-4 to win the Campeonato Internacional de Tenis. The championship match was halted by rain Sunday and was eventually moved to an indoor-clay venue in Sao Paulo Monday afternoon. With Choinski leading 6-4, 4-4 15/15 when the match resumed indoors, the 26-year-old wasted no time to earn his maiden Challenger title. Choinski, World No. 348, is the first non-South American to win the Campinas Challenger since Gastao Elias in 2017.

Jan Choinski wins the Campinas Challenger. Credit: Joao Pires

Choinski is one of six players from Great Britain who have combined for nine Challenger titles, the country’s most Challenger titles in a single season. Jack Draper, who claimed four Challenger titles earlier this year, is the only Briton to win more than one Challenger title in 2022.

’Domi’ was dominant on Monday in Gijon.

Dominic Thiem defeated Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-0 to reach the second round of the Gijon Open. The two games he lost is tied for the fewest he has dropped in a completed tour-level match, with the other instance coming in 2013 in Vienna against Jaroslav Pospisil, whom he eliminated 6-1, 6-1 in the second round.

“It was a great match for the first time since ages I had the feeling that the ratio between unforced errors and making the right pace, playing really aggressive, was right. Especially with the forehand, it was really good for basically the first time [since my injury], so I’m very happy about it,” Thiem said. “The way is right, the direction is right, also the way of focus and how I maintain it from the first to the last point was good and I’ll try to keep going that way.”

The Austrian did not face a break point against Sousa, while he converted five of the seven break points he earned. The 29-year-old won 61 per cent of his return points to triumph after 62 minutes. 

Sousa won his fourth ATP Tour title earlier this year in Pune, but was unable to push Thiem, who now owns a 7-1 lead in their ATP Head2Head series. The former World No. 3 has earned six of his seven victories against Sousa in straight sets.

The No. 165 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, who is now 12-13 in tour-level matches in 2022, will next play American Marcos Giron or Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Thiem will try to reach his first ATP Tour quarter-final since Kitzbühel in July. His best run of the season came that month in Gstaad, where he advanced to the semi-finals.

“I’ll try to go on court the same way like today as it was very, very good. It helps that I have a big goal in mind, to finish the year in Top 100, which would be amazing,” Thiem said. “I need good matches, I need victories, I still need quite a lot of points. So yeah, I hope I can continue that way on Wednesday and looking forward to it.”

In other action, Brazilian Thiago Monteiro ousted Frenchman 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 27 minutes to set a meeting with second seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Frenchman Constant Lestienne led Argentine Sebastian Baez 7-6(5), 4-4 when Baez retired due to injury.

There was little time for J.J. Wolf to find his feet Monday in Florence thanks to a lightning-fast start by Francesco Maestrelli, but the American clicked into gear to rally to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 first-round victory at the UniCredit Firenze Open.

#NextGenATP Italian Maestrelli enjoyed the perfect opening to his tour-level main-draw debut as he broke Wolf’s serve in the first game of the match. The 19-year-old home wild card backed that early success up with strong serving to seal the first set, but Wolf’s greater consistency then proved decisive as the World No. 72 clinched a one-hour, 56-minute comeback win.

“He’s a super good young player, a lot of credit to him,” said Wolf after the match. “I didn’t even think I came out that badly. He really made me play in that first game and he was serving huge. If you’re making mistakes, you’re going to lose that match, so I really had to lock it down.”

The 23-year-old Wolf fired 16 winners to Maestrelli’s 20 but was particularly aggressive on return, converting four from eight break point chances to set a second-round meeting against fellow American Maxime Cressy.

Roberto Carballes Baena will take on home favourite and second seed Matteo Berrettini in the second round after the Spaniard cruised past Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2, 6-1. A confident Carballes Baena secured victory in 74 minutes to back up his excellent form on the ATP Challenger Tour in recent weeks — he lifted his 10th title at that level in Seville in early September before reaching quarter-finals in Szczecin and Parma.

Also on Monday, fifth seed Aslan Karatsev advanced after Tallon Griekspoor retired from the pair’s first-round match. Karatsev had led 6-3, 2-1 when the Dutchman was forced to stop, and the three-time tour-level titlist next faces Tim van Rijthoven or Mikael Ymer.

It is a critical week in the Pepperstone ATP Live ATP Race To Turin, with only three spots remaining in the Nitto ATP Finals, which will be played from 13-20 November. Both eighth-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime and 15th-placed Matteo Berrettini will try to improve their standing at the UniCredit Firenze Open in Florence.

But first, the top two seeds in the ATP 250 visited the Piazzale Michelangelo, which looks over the city.

“It’s my first time in Florence and the view from up here is amazing,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It’s a beautiful city and I’m very happy that the tournament decided to take us to this beautiful spot.”

It was a special moment for the Italian Berrettini, who has a family connection to the city.

“Florence is very special for me as my grandfather is from this wonderful city,” Berrettini said. “It’s always a great pleasure to play in front of the Italian fans.”

In a week when Novak Djokovic secured qualification for the Nitto ATP Finals, Taylor Fritz also boosted his hopes of reaching the season finale with his title run in Tokyo.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Race following a two-tournament week on Tour.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin Rankings

Seventh Taylor Fritz, +3
Fritz has soared three spots to No. 7 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin after he won his maiden ATP 500 title at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. The 24-year-old edged past countryman Frances Tiafoe in the championship match to clinch the crown in Tokyo. The American is now on 2885 points, five points ahead of eighth-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime. Fritz is aiming to make his debut at the prestigious end-of-year event, to be held from 13-20 November in Turin.

10th Novak Djokovic, +5
The Serbian became the fifth player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals following his title run at the Astana Open. Djokovic claimed his spot in Turin under the Grand Slam champion provision, which awards entry to a current-year major winner who finishes between 8th and 20th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. After lifting the Astana trophy on Sunday, the 35-year-old moved to 10th in the Race and is now guaranteed to be within the Top 20 on 7 November after the Rolex Paris Masters.

It was a good week for Andrey Rublev at the Astana Open, but there is no let up for the 24-year-old as he seeks to boost his qualification hopes for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Rublev powered to the semi-finals at the ATP 500 event in the Kazakh capital before falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets. Despite that disappointment, the 11-time tour-level titlist collected 180 valuable points to consolidate his place in sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

This week, he has the chance to press his claims further when he takes to court at the Gijon Open. Rublev (who has 3,235 points in the Live Race) is the top seed at the ATP 250 event, and a title run in Spain would move him within 70 points of fifth-placed Daniil Medvedev (3,555).

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin Standings

Should he qualify, it would be a third consecutive appearance for Rublev at the end-of-year event, to be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from 13-20 November.

Now right behind Rublev in the Race is Taylor Fritz (2,885 points). The American’s maiden ATP 500 crown at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo propelled him three spots to seventh as he chases his debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals.

As a result of lifting his 90th tour-level trophy in Astana, Novak Djokovic (2,720 points) became the fifth confirmed qualifier for the eight-man season finale. The Serbian’s triumph not only lifted him to 10th in the Live Race, but also guaranteed the five-time Nitto ATP Finals champion a Top 20 finish — high enough to book his spot thanks to his Wimbledon triumph in July.

Djokovic’s qualification raises the possibility of an eighth-placed finish in the Race not being enough to reach the Nitto ATP Finals. Felix Auger-Aliassime currently occupies that spot with 2,880 points, having been usurped from seventh by Fritz, but he has the chance to immediately reclaim the position from the American — the Canadian is the top seed at this week’s UniCredit Firenze Open in Florence.

Also in action from the chasing pack this week are Matteo Berrettini (15th in the Race) and Pablo Carreno Busta (14th in the Race), who are the second seeds in Florence and Gijon, respectively. Both will seek strong runs to boost their qualification hopes as the final few weeks of the 2022 season approach.

#NextGenATP Italian Luca Nardi has moved to within five points of the final qualification place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan after he came through qualifying to reach the second round at the Astana Open.

The 19-year-old earned wins over Hamad Medjedovic, David Goffin and Alexander Shevchenko before falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in two tie-break sets. Nardi, who is aiming to make his debut at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, is up to 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan, trailing 10th-placed Dominic Stricker (390 points) by five points.

The 10th spot is the cut off for qualification after first-placed Carlos Alcaraz and second-placed Jannik Sinner both withdrew from the event.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan Standings

Timofey Skatov also boosted his hopes by winning his first ATP Challenger Tour title of the season in Parma. The 21-year-old has climbed 10 places to 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan on 343 points, just 47 points off Stricker.

Ben Shelton has also kept himself in contention after he reached the final at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Tiburon. The 20-year-old American, currently 15th, is on 330 points as he looks to qualify for the 21-and-under event for the first time.

Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune have already qualified for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held from 8-12 November in Milan.

Taylor Fritz revealed in March after winning the BNP Paribas Open that his goal was to crack the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The American can now say, “Mission accomplished”.

The 24-year-old today became the first player from his country to break into the Top 10 since Jack Sock on 6 November 2017. Fritz climbed three spots to World No. 8 after winning the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.

“I think every kid growing up and every player when you first start playing, [reaching the] Top 10 is a massive milestone and it’s a dream that you want to tick off [that] box,” Fritz told ATPTour.com. “Obviously everyone wants to be No. 1 in the world, Top 5, there is more that I want to achieve. But I’ll always be a Top 10 player. That can never be taken away from me.

“It’s one of those things that you strive for and you want for a really long time, so it’s nice to finally get there.”

Fritz began 2022 at World No. 23, which at the time was the highest standing of his career. There were signs the Californian was on the rise, though. He finished 2021 with a flurry by advancing to the Indian Wells semi-finals, the St. Petersburg final and the Paris quarter-finals. Eight of his 11 victories during that stretch came in straight sets.

“I felt like things started falling into place and [when] I went into this year, a lot of people asked me what it was going to take to be Top 10,” Fritz recalled. “I said, ‘Nothing, I just need to play the way I’ve been playing.’ Obviously [I needed] good results, but I felt like going into this year when I was ranked 20 or whatever it was, I thought my level was of a Top 10 player, so I definitely believed from the end of last year that it was super achievable.”

The pupil of Michael Russell and Paul Annacone carried that momentum into this season, making the biggest splash of his career in the California desert. Fritz stunned Rafael Nadal in the Indian Wells final for his first ATP Masters 1000 title. The American added two more trophies to his collection by triumphing in Eastbourne and Tokyo.

The Tokyo victory did not just propel him into the world’s Top 10, though. It also helped Fritz climb to seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, putting him in a qualifying position for the Nitto ATP Finals, which will be played from 13-20 November in Turin.

Fritz is not resting on his accomplishments. Instead, he is laser-focussed on maintaining his level through the Rolex Paris Masters to earn his place in the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

“Obviously short term [my goal] is Turin. Finishing Top 8, that’s the next thing for sure and that’s short term, it’s going to be decided in a month and a half,” Fritz said. “But the next thing is to keep moving up. I’d love to have a big run at a Slam. I think semis or final of a Slam is the next step.

“[I reached the] quarters at Wimbledon this year, I was very close. Top 5, I think one thing we talked about with my team for a lot of last year and this year was Top 10 mentality and once I got to about 12ish in the world, we said, ‘Okay, we can’t stop. Now we reevaluate and it’s Top 5 mentality’, so that’s what we’re focussed on.”

Fritz has earned 41 wins this year. Before 2022, he had never claimed more than 34 victories in a full season. The new World No. 8 is next scheduled to compete at next week’s Stockholm Open.

Did You Know?
Fritz is the third player to crack the Top 10 this season, joining Carlos Alcaraz and Cameron Norrie. He is the 36th American and 179th player overall in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (since 1973) to accomplish the feat.

#NextGenATP star Francesco Passaro is the latest Italian to have made his mark on Tour this season, with the 21-year-old capturing his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in July before climbing to a career-high No. 122 last month.

Passaro’s strong form has seen him rise into qualification contention for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, with the Italian currently ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan.

However, life could have been very different for the talented righty had he decided to pursue football over tennis when he was a teenager.

“When I first started playing tennis [aged six], my family was basically living at the club,” Passaro told ATPTour.com. “My house was just two minutes from the club and for me it was easy to go there. Then when I started to go, I had a lot of friends and it was like my second family. I think I spent more time there than at my home.

“When I was young I also played football. Then when I was 12 years old, I started to only play football, for one year. I stopped practicing tennis and was just playing a few tournaments because it was too much. I was a goalkeeper in football and it was very nice. However, [it made me realise] I just wanted to play tennis.”

Passaro’s decision to swap his boots for his racquet has paid off this season, with the 21-year-old enjoying runs to three Challenger Tour finals before he finally tasted glory on home soil in Trieste.

The Italian, who describes himself as mentally strong on court, possessing a powerful serve and forehand, is pleased with how he has performed against higher-ranked opponents on the big stage this season.

Passaro lost to #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune in the final in San Remo, while he fell to #NextGenATP countryman Lorenzo Musetti in Forli. Both Musetti and Rune will compete in Milan in November.

“Both [finals] I lost in the third set,” Passaro said. “Against Holger, I was 4-2 and break point to go 5-2 up in the third set, so it was not easy after the match but I know I have played well against a big player. I understand my capacity and what I can do. Against Lorenzo, he is a big player, so I just have to stay positive after this loss. The last final I was very focused, I was determined [to win]. There was a little bit of pressure, I lost the first set and was nervous, but in the end, I just tried to play my best tennis.”

Passaro will compete at just his second tour-level event this week in Florence, where has accepted a wild card into the ATP 250 event. It will provide the home fans with an opportunity to watch him in action, with the 21-year-old one of several Italians in the draw.

Eight of the Top 20 players in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan are from the European nation, signifying the strength in depth the country has. Passaro is delighted to travel on Tour with his countrymen and feels their success helps motivate him.

“It is great,” Passaro said. “I am close [with] Matteo Arnaldi. We have played a lot of tournaments together and in doubles, so we are very close friends. Also with Lorenzo [Musetti], with Giulio [Zeppieri], Luca [Nardi] with Francesco [Maestrelli]. With these guys we have played a lot of Challengers together this year, it is something special to play all these tournaments together.

“When one starts to win, I think ‘I can also win a tournament’. So we improve our results every week and with the rankings we want to join each other. A very big help for us is the tournaments [in Italy]. We have the opportunity to play every week in Italy at a big level.”

Read 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals Spotlight Features
Jiri Lehecka
Jack Draper
Holger Rune
Shang Juncheng
Luca Nardi
Dominic Stricker
Chun-Hsin Tseng
Ben Shelton

With confidence high, Passaro will be aiming to finish his season in Italy at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals. The 21-year-old, who holds a 29-14 record on the Challenger Tour this season, is excited at the possibility of competing in Milan at an event he has fond memories of watching.

“I watched on TV last year and two years ago when Jannik won,” Passaro said. “I think for me it is a big opportunity because it is in Italy and it is going be of the best under-21 players in the world. It is a very big goal. This year I have grown up a lot. I am now more about myself. The Italian crowd. The energy of the stadium and the atmosphere is very, very nice.”