Challenger Tour Weekly Recap: Misolic Still in Monstrous Form, Cilic Wins on Grass

Filip Misolic maintained his incredible disposition from Roland Garros last week and didn’t give anyone a chance at a stacked Challenger in Poznan. Meanwhile, Marin Cilic played his second-ever grass-court tournament at this level and found some momentum ahead of his first Wimbledon visit since 2021 (he was the runner-up eight years ago). Carlos Taberner will return to the Top 100 after 35 months. Read up on last week’s action:

Challenger Tour Weekly Recap

Nottingham

Shintaro Mochizuki entered Ilkley the week before Nottingham on a losing streak, but was able to turn his season around on grass. The 2019 Wimbledon junior champion hasn’t had that much success on the surface in the pros, often getting overpowered. But his feel for the ball on the surface was still very good, and after making it to the Ilkley semifinals, Mochizuki followed it up with a flawless run to the Nottingham final. He didn’t drop a set and only had one tight battle against Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Marin Cilic started his grass-court swing with a second-round exit to Zachary Svajda in Ilkley, and for a while, it looked like he might suffer a similar fate in Nottingham. The 2017 Wimbledon finalist was quite fortunate that Lloyd Harris’ body didn’t survive three sets on the day, which gave the Croat a second life in the event. He made sure to make the most of it by hitting 30 aces and saving 1 match point to defeat Martin Landaluce in the semifinals, reaching the first grass-court Challenger Tour final of his career.

The one drawback of Mochizuki’s game on grass is that he might be too easy to overpower, and despite the tricky semifinal, Cilic ran into him like a bulldog. Like a true legend of this surface, he shut down his opponent quickly and only faced one break point. The 36-year-old won his fourth Challenger title 6-2 6-3 and became the oldest player to pick up a trophy at this level on grass. He will now take a week off before appearing in the Wimbledon main draw, while Mochizuki has to go through the qualifying.

Sassuolo

Already a champion at a stacked Challenger in Murcia this year, Carlos Taberner was the top seed in Sassuolo and needed to win the title to return to the Top 100 for the first time since July 2022. In his first tournament since Roland Garros qualifying, the Spaniard started well with dominant wins before getting engaged in a three-hour marathon against Luca Van Assche. Surviving from 3-5 in the deciding set allowed him to reach the semifinals, with Francesco Passaro retiring after one set.

Dusan Lajovic had some strong runs in qualifying for ATP 1000 clay events (making it at all three of them), but struggled to consistently pick up points at the Challenger level. In Perugia, the week before Sassuolo, he went out in the second round to Nerman Fatic. Somewhat unexpectedly, the veteran found some vintage disposition only a few days later and didn’t drop a set on the way to his first final at any level since he won the ATP 250 in Banja Luka in 2023. Only Francesco Maestrelli got him to play a tie-break.

What was at stake for Taberner in the final was a chance to return to the Top 100 for the first time since July 2022. Brandon Holt was also awaiting the result from Sassuolo, as the Spaniard’s loss would mean he reaches that ranking milestone for the first time. But Taberner didn’t grant him that privilege, and after a 70min+ opening set, he started outgunning Lajovic completely to lead 5-o in the second. He eventually claimed his ninth Challenger Tour title 7-6(1) 6-2, as both finalists are now headed to Wimbledon qualifying.

Poznan

Filip Misolic has been in monstrous form since the start of May, winning the Challenger in Prague and producing a beautiful run at Roland Garros, which culminated in him taking on Novak Djokovic during a night session at Roland Garros. He took two weeks off after that but didn’t lose any of that form at all. The opposition in Poznan was still clueless about how to handle his powerful, yet incredibly precise, hooked forehand, and Misolic was oozing confidence while destroying his opposition on the way to the final.

Dalibor Svrcina had already won two Challenger titles this year (Pune, Barletta) and was getting close to a Top 100 debut, but suffered a bit of a dip with just three wins in six events from mid-April to mid-June. The Czech picked it right back up in Poznan, where he also felt very comfortable during a quarterfinal run in 2024. His wins weren’t quite as dominant as Misolic’s, but he also never lost a set on the way to the final (required one tie-break against Henri Squire).

Svrcina forced Misolic to slow things down a bit and limited the potency of his forehand at first. But the Austrian just has far too many options right now and didn’t need to try going at his opponent with brute force. After he grew confident and discovered the dropshot as a weapon in this matchup, he even found more and more opportunities to crack the forehand, no matter how little space there was. Misolic completed the perfect week for his fourth Challenger Tour title 6-2 6-0 and now finds himself about 50 points outside the Top 100. Both finalists are now headed to Wimbledon qualifying.

Royan

Dimitar Kuzmanov won the Hersonissos-2 Challenger in March, and while his clay season thus far hadn’t included any standout result like that, the Bulgarian was picking up wins regularly and keeping himself in solid form. The Challenger 50 level has been kind to him over the last two years, and such was the case once more. Kuzmanov posted key wins from a set down against youngsters Kalin Ivanovski and Mika Brunold to reach his first clay-court final since 2023 Bratislava.

Titouan Droguet has been in great shape recently, making the final in Tunis and defeating Borna Coric at Roland Garros qualifying. He quickly showed that his opening-round loss to Pablo Carreno Busta in Lyon was just a matter of a tough draw and produced a strong run in Royan, including a win over the finalist of the previous French event, Daniel Merida Aguilar.  However, his toughest battle on the way was a 3-hour battle against Luka Mikrut.

Droguet had a pretty poor record in Challenger finals (1-5), and when he lost the opening set, it was obvious that his mentality would be tested here. But this time, the Frenchman was able to avoid the mistakes from the past. Once he got on top of the baseline against Kuzmanov, he stayed strong on serve and never looked like losing his lead on the way to the second Challenger Tour title of his career 4-6 6-1 6-4. He returns to Top 200 and will now play Wimbledon qualifying, while Kuzmanov hasn’t made the cut and will hope to be back at the Challenger in Brasov in two weeks’ time.

Santa Cruz

Alex Barrena has been on fire recently, starting from picking up his maiden Challenger title at San Miguel de Tucuman at the end of April. He also reached the Porto Alegre semifinals the week after, before going 9-1 in ITF events in Europe in M15 Warmbad Villach (won the title) and M25 Grasse (lost to Kimmer Coppejans in the final). Back in South America, he improved his win/loss record since Tucuman to 21-2 by the time he reached the final, losing just 13 games in four matches.

Franco Roncadelli isn’t having that sort of a breakout, but has been gradually making more and more impact at the Challenger level. After winning 4 ITF titles in 2024, the Uruguayan reached his first semifinal in the higher tier of events in Santos in May before securing this run in Santa Cruz. Unlike Barrena, he had to battle his way to the final. After beating Juan Carlos Prado Angelo in 3 hours and 40 minutes on Thursday, he also survived two almost three-hour-long matches in the quarters and semis on Friday.

After 9 hours and 19 minutes on court over the previous two days, Roncadelli was on a bit of a timer in the final. His chances looked slim, but he fought well and was still grinding with Barrena, using his left-handed angles to a great extent. Not converting a 7-5 4-2 lead was brutal, though, especially once the legs started fading away in the decider. Barrena claimed his second Challenger Tour title 5-7 7-5 6-3 with both finalists now set to compete in Lima.

Events held this week:

• Aspria Tennis Cup Trofeo BCS (Milan, Challenger 75, clay)
• Lima Challenger (Challenger 50, clay)

There will be no Top 100 players in action, as two ATP 250 events and Wimbledon qualifying take place this week.

First-round matches to watch:

Milan

• (JR) Rafael Jodar vs Lorenzo Giustino
• (NG) Diego Dedura vs Arthur Gea
• Luka Mikrut vs (2) Kimmer Coppejans

Lima

• (1) Nicolas Mejia vs Nicolas Kicker
• Maximus Jones vs (7) Renzo Olivo