The finals of this week’s Challengers are to be played and there are some big names fighting for the titles in Anning, Tallahassee, and Francavilla.
Anning: The final sees sixth seed Quentin Halys take on second seed and former Top 10 player Janko Tipsarevic. Halys defeated the top seed Jordan Thompson in the quarter-finals but dropped sets against Akira Santillan and the in form German Oscar Otte. Tipsarevic has been impeccable this week, not dropping a set en route to the final. He defeated the likes of Juan Pablo Paz and Blaz Kavcic.
Oscar Otte continued his remarkable recent form this week. The German reached the final in Qingdao and the semis this week before falling to Halys in straight sets. Juan Pablo Paz also reached his first Challenger semi-final as a qualifier.
Tallahassee: The final will feature no players from the home nation as Blaz Rola and Ramkumar Ramanathan reached the final. Rola, a former NCAA winner, was a qualifier and defeated the last American standing in the semi-finals. Ramanathan won a close match with Andrea Arnaboldi. Ramanathan is looking to become the first Indian since Saketh Myneni to win a Challenger.
American Bradley Klahn continued his comeback from back surgery with a run to the quarter-finals that included a win over eighth seed Maximo Gonzalez. Teenager Stefan Kozlov reached the quarter-finals, as did Dennis Novikov. Mitchell Krueger will move to a career-high ranking after becoming the only American to reach the semi-finals this week.
Francavilla: Pedro Sousa will likely move into the Top 200 for the first time after the Portuguese defeated fourth seed Marco Cecchinato in three sets. He will face second seed Alessandro Giannessi in the final after he negotiated a perhaps more difficult than anticipated win over Stefano Travaglia.
Earlier in the week young Italian Matteo Berrettini cemented his growing reputation with a run to the quarter-finals. A win over seventh seed Constant Lestienne was the highlight, before taking fourth seed Cecchinato to a close third set.
