Challenger Tour Weekly Recap: Sakamoto Strikes Again

2024 Australian Open junior champion Rei Sakamoto claimed his second Challenger Tour title at Cary, while Stefano Travaglia picked up his first trophy since 2021. Among the winners were also Jan Choinski, who secured his 4th straight season title, and Francesco Maestrelli, who continued his resurgence from the last few months. Read up on last week’s action:

Challenger Tour Weekly Recap

Brasov

Luka Pavlovic had a pretty decent showing at Wimbledon qualifying, saving 17/17 break points against James Trotter before losing to Beibit Zhukayev in the final round. The Frenchman didn’t struggle with the quick switch to altitude clay conditions. His serve and a solid baseline are a good combination for these courts, and he didn’t drop a set on the way to his third Challenger final, including three victories over Romanian players (one of them being a double bagel against Luca Preda).

Francesco Maestrelli came back from a set and a break down in his opening round, running into top-seeded Felipe Meligeni Alves. The Italian has been in resurgent form recently, highlighted by the Challenger title in Francavilla al Mare in May. In Brasov, he survived another tough encounter in the quarterfinals with a 3-set win over Marko Topo, before giving Tom Paris just two games in the final four to reach his second championship match of the season.

Like in many other matches in the quicker 600m altitude conditions in Brasov, the first set felt almost destined to finish in a tie-break. Maestrelli’s superior ground game, with a strong, more aggressive backhand down the line, gave him the edge in the key moments. While Pavlovic had the edge on serve, it didn’t matter much when he couldn’t break the Italian at all either. Eventually, Maestrelli took the lead and claimed his third Challenger Tour title 7-6(7) 6-4. He returns to the Top 200 and will play Iasi next, while Pavlovic travels to Braunschweig.

Cary

Rei Sakamoto returned to hard courts after a swing of European clay-court events in Europe, during which he only ended up posting three wins in six matches. The conditions in Cary were a lot more natural for him, with the Japanese posting impressive wins, especially in the quarterfinals and semifinals. First, he took out top seed Tristan Schoolkate before snapping the 18-match winning streak of Patrick Kypson via two tie-breakers in the final four.

Liam Draxl became the first player to reach five Challenger finals in 2025 after losing in Oeiras-1, Oeiras-3, Sarasota, and Savannah championship matches. The Canadian grinder played just one match on grass in Wimbledon qualifying before heading back to North America for another hard-court swing. That was an instant hit as Draxl didn’t drop a set on the way to the final, letting only Aidan Mayo grab 5 games in a set and snapping the 10-match winning streak of recent Tyler champion Yibing Wu.

The final had to be moved indoors due to a thunderstorm. On the day, it was Sakamoto who handled that better, with Draxl looking uncomfortable and having to get his rackets restrung during the match. While he eventually fought a bit harder in the second set, this was a complete mismatch, with the Japanese creating break points almost every game. The 19-year-old took his 2nd Challenger title 6-1 6-4 and will now almost surely make US Open qualifying. Both finalists are headed to Winnipeg next.

Modena

Thiago Seyboth Wild was just 1-6 in his Challenger main draw appearances this season before showing up in Modena. He reached his first quarterfinal at this level in 2025 before having to survive a couple of absolute marathons. First, it was a three-hour thriller with Stefanos Sakellaridis, where he almost blew a 5-2 (double break) lead in the third set, then another battle against Jerome Kym, with Seyboth Wild taking it from a set down.

Stefano Travaglia hadn’t reached a Challenger final since February 2024 (Tenerife), falling out of the Top 300 in the meantime. He was already involved in a battle against Giovanni Fonio in qualifying, before posting his best win in a while over World No. 121 Tirante in the second round (despite not breaking serve). What got him to the final was 3-set wins over compatriots Andrea Pellegrino and Federico Cina, the latter from 1-3 down in the deciding set.

The two were pretty evenly matched until four-all in the opening set, at which point Travaglia attacked to take the opening set. Seyboth Wild grew increasingly frustrated and fell into a horrible streak of seven games lost in a row. He looked like he basically quit, and while from 0-5 in the 2nd he was able to produce a mini-comeback, Travaglia closed it out 6-4 6-3 for his first title since 2021 Sibiu. Both players opted to withdraw from the Challenger Tour events they were scheduled for next week.

Troyes

Jan Choinski had been struggling this season, reaching just two quarterfinals in the first six months of the year (Thionville, Monza). The Brit wasn’t awarded a wild card into the Wimbledon main draw and instead lost to Mark Lajal in the first round of the qualifying. But all’s well that ends well, as it gave him a chance to bounce back at the Challenger 50 in Troyes. Choinski dropped one set on the way to his first final of the season, clinching the semifinal duel against Marco Trungelliti on his sixth match point.

Calvin Hemery was 1-10 in Challenger finals, losing his most recent 9 since claiming the only title in Tampere in 2017. One of the finals he’s made since came in Troyes in 2023, with the Frenchman now looking to go deep at this venue again. As the second seed, he was able to produce another run to reach his second final of the season after Brazzaville in February, despite dropping a bagel set to Mika Brunold in the second round.

Hemery’s recent struggles in Challenger finals looked like they were set to continue, but the Frenchman played a great game to break back in the second set with a stunning half-volley at 30-all. The final was delayed by rain a few times, and the conditions getting heavier didn’t suit him either. Despite that, Hemery dominated the second set tie-break, and it took Choinski a moment to fire back. But once he did, his heavy groundstrokes were enough to claim a 4th Challenger title 6-4 6-7(4) 6-2. He will play Braunschweig this week, while Hemery is in the draw in Iasi.

Events held this week:

• Hall of Fame Open (Newport, Challenger 125, grass)
• Brawo Open (Braunschweig, Challenger 125, clay)
• Concord Iasi Open (Challenger 100, clay)
• Citta di Trieste (Challenger 100, clay)
• Winnipeg National Bank Open (Challenger 75, hard)
• Lexus Nottingham Challenger (Challenger 50, grass)

Top 100 players in action:

• Brandon Holt (Newport)
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Roberto Carballes Baena, Raphael Collignon, Mariano Navone, Botic van de Zandschulp (Braunschweig)
• Hugo Dellien, Hugo Gaston (Iasi)
• Chun-Hsin Tseng (Trieste)

First-round matches to watch:

Newport

• (1) Brandon Holt vs Murphy Cassone
• Yasutaka Uchiyama vs (4) Adrian Mannarino

Braunschweig

• (1) Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs Luka Pavlovic
• Jan Choinski vs (5) Botic van de Zandschulp

Iasi

• (3) Carlos Taberner vs Benjamin Hassan
• (6/WC) Stan Wawrinka vs Edas Butvilas

Trieste

• Jurij Rodionov vs (WC) Giulio Zeppieri
• (5) Thiago Agustin Tirante vs Henrique Rocha

Winnipeg

• Yi Zhou vs Tung-Lin Wu
• Andres Martin vs (4/WC) Alexis Galarneau

Nottingham

• (1) Hugo Grenier vs Liam Broady
• (WC) Charlie Robertson vs (7) George Loffhagen