The semi-final stages of this week’s Challenger tournaments have now been completed in some events, and with finals now set, we can look back on the results and runs of the week so far.
Bratislava: The Slovakian fans will be delighted to see that a home player has reached the final of this year’s event. Because Bratislava does not feature a main ATP event, this challenger marks the country’s single biggest ATP event of the year. Norbert Gombos overcame two tough three-set battles against eighth seed Jozef Kovalik and then Cedrik-Marcel Stebe before growing into the tournament by dispatching Vasek Pospisil in a handy straight sets victory in the quarter-finals. His 6-4, 7-6 win today in the semi-finals against Sergiy Stakhovsky continues his rich vein of form at Challenger level since the US Open.
His opponent will be Marius Copil who is also enjoying a run of good form recently. Copil benefited from a number of high profile exits in the top half of the draw including top seed Florian Mayer’s defeat to Uladzimir Ignatik, and Lukas Rosol’s early exit. Copil accounted for Egor Gerasimov, Lukas Klein and Alexander Kudryavtsev before defeating Daniil Medvedev in today’s semi-final 7-6, 7-6.
Final: Hard to call. Both men are tall servers in good form though Copil wins more free points than his counterpart. Gombos will have the home crowd behind him. Prediction: Gombos in three sets including at least one tie-break.
Mouilleron le Captif: When the draw came out a featured highlight of the first round was the match-up between second seed Mikhail Youzhny and the unseeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau. Benneteau won a close three-set batle and has gone from strength to strength since then, defeating the likes of Alexey Vatutin and Peter Gojowczyk in straight sets. Alex de Minaur’s sepcial exemption has been well earned, as the seventeen year old Australian defeated wildcard Corentin Moutet and fifth seed Radu Albot before losing in the quarter-finals, a promising run for the Australian though.
Benneteau faces the winner of the semi-final between top seed Benoit Paire, who has shown his fluctuating form by dropping sets against Enrique Lopez-Perez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. At the time of writing he was down a set too Russian youngster Andrey Rublev, who marked a good week regardless of his result against Paire by defeating Calvin Hemery and Constant Lestienne, both of whom knocked out seeds in Nikoloz Basilashvili and Paul-Henri Mathieu before succumbing to Rublev.
Final: I would make Benneteau the favourite against either Paire or Rublev. Paire has shown his form to be consistently inconsistent so far this week against significantly easier opposition than Benneteau. A good week for Rublev but Benneteau is perhaps a step too far at this stage.
