Five Challenger players to watch at the US Open
ATPTour.com looks at five ATP Challenger Tour players to keep your eyes on during the US Open.
Learner Tien
The 18-year-old arrives at Flushing Meadows fresh off a dream ATP Tour debut week, reaching the Winston-Salem quarter-finals as a qualifier. Eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Tien survived a marathon tournament at last month’s Bloomfield Hills Challenger, where he needed a deciding set in all five of his matches to lift the trophy.
Tien became the 10th-youngest American Challenger champion, joining the likes of Andy Roddick, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, whom the teen lost to in the first round of the US Open last year. The lefty will look to rely on his ultra-consistent baseline play to challenge the world’s best in his third consecutive US Open appearance. In the first round, Tien faces fellow #NextGenATP star and 24th seed Arthur Fils.
Mattia Bellucci
It has been a red-hot past month for the Italian inching closer to his Top 100 debut, currently World No. 101 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Bellucci made his first tour-level quarter-final in Atlanta and followed that run by qualifying for Washington and reaching the second round. The 23-year-old held two championship points at the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Cary, North Carolina, but fell to Roman Safiullin after nearly three hours.
After qualifying for a third consecutive major main-draw appearance, the lefty starts against 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka.
Buyunchaokete
In May, the 22-year-old became the youngest Chinese player to earn multiple ATP Challenger Tour titles. With title runs in Wuxi and Granby the past three months, ‘Bu’ has climbed more than 100 places in the PIF ATP Rankings since the first week of May. The qualifier is now at a career-high World No. 123.
‘Bu’ has won 15 of his past 17 matches across all levels. The three-time ATP Challenger Tour champion faces eighth seed and 2022 finalist Casper Ruud in the opening round. This fortnight is Buyunchaokete’s first major main draw.
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Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard
The monstrous-serving Frenchman used the ATP Challenger Tour as a springboard this season before launching into the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Rankings. Mpetshi Perricard collected three hard-court Challenger titles spanning from February through April and then triumphed at his home ATP 250 in Lyon, where he saved championship point against Tomas Martin Etcheverry, his first-round opponent this week.
The six-foot-eight 21-year-old made a surprise fourth-round run at Wimbledon as a lucky loser, having begun that week by crushing 55 aces to upset 20th seed Sebastian Korda. This fortnight, a potential clash with fourth seed Alexander Zverev looms in the third round, but Mpetshi Perricard will be focussed on the task at hand as he makes his US open main-draw debut.
Dominic Stricker
Injuries have unfortunately sidelined the Swiss lefty from consistently competing in 2024, but now Stricker returns to the site where he has fond memories from last year. Stricker produced fearless, heavy hitting to upset seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas as a qualifier en route to the fourth round in New York.
A semi-finalist at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, the 22-year-old is playing in just his ninth tournament of the season across all levels. Stricker faces Argentine Francisco Comesana in the first round.
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