#NextGenATP Cerundolo, Bellucci Continue Challenger Tour Hot Streak
Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Italian Mattia Bellucci continued their sizzling runs on the ATP Challenger Tour this week as they each claimed their second Challenger title this month. Cerundolo collected the title at the Coquimbo Challenger while Bellucci triumphed in Vilnius, Lithuania. The #NextGenATP stars Bellucci and Cerundolo are among five Challenger champions this week.
Cerundolo defeated countryman Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the championship match to win the Challenger Dove Men+Care Coquimbo 2.
Following his breakthrough season in 2021, when Cerundolo collected a trio of Challenger titles and won the ATP 250 event in Cordoba, the lefty has battled a psoas muscle injury [located in the lower lumbar region of the spine] that forced him to take time off this summer.
Since returning to competition, the Buenos Aires native has made a sudden impact on the Challenger Tour, winning 12 of his past 13 matches, including triumphing in his home city, Buenos Aires, earlier this month. The 20-year-old boasts a 21-8 Challenger-match record this season and the title in Coquimbo lifts him to 136 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
Bellucci, 21, extended his match-winning streak to 12 after defeating Turkish qualifier Cem Ilkel 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final at the Vilnius Open by kevin. The left-hander didn’t drop a set all week until the championship match.
“I’m super, super happy,” Bellucci said. “I played unbelievable tennis for two weeks. 12 matches in a row, I’m also a bit tired.”
“The first set was super difficult to get into the match, I felt tired, especially mentally. Then I was like, ‘Okay, let’s play every point!”
Italian Mattia Bellucci in action at the 2022 Vilnius Challenger. Credit: Saulius Čirba
The week prior to triumphing in Lithuania, Bellucci advanced through qualifying to win his first Challenger title at the Saint-Tropez Challenger. Bellucci is the second Italian #NextGenATP player to score multiple Challenger titles this season (Luca Nardi, 3) and is the youngest Italian to win Challenger titles in back-to-back weeks since 19-year-old Stefano Pescosolido in 1991.
Following his title at the indoor hard court event in Vilnius, Bellucci rises to a career-high No. 156 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
In Ambato, Ecuador, Facundo Bagnis created Challenger Tour history. The lefty secured Argentina’s 21st Challenger title of the year, the most titles won by a single country in a season, as he ousted Brazilian Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva 7-6(7), 6-4 in the final at the Ambato La Gran Ciudad.
Bagnis was victorious a few hours after Argentine youngster Cerundolo secured his title in Chile, combining to surpass the previous record of most titles won by a country in a season, 20, which has been reached four times (France in 2005, Argentina in 2007, 2016, 2021).
Facundo Bagnis in action during Sunday's final at the Ambato Challenger. Credit: Armando Prado
Bagnis, who claimed the Pereira Challenger earlier this season, dropped just one set all week en route to claiming his 16th Challenger title.
“I’m very happy,” Bagnis said. “I didn’t feel good in the past few weeks, not because of the results but because of myself… Getting into the Top 100 is a goal I achieved with this victory and now I have more goals.”
At the Granology Busan Open in South Korea, Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak captured his fourth Challenger title after defeating Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the final.
Majchrzak, 26, went 3-0 at the season-opening ATP Cup before reaching his maiden Tour-level semi-final in Pune (l. Ruusuvuori). This week, the 2013 US Open boys’ doubles champion (w/ Ma Redlicki) took down top seed Soonwoo Kwon in the quarter-finals en route to his first Challenger title of 2022. Majchrzak climbs to No. 82, seven spots shy of his career-high, which he reached in February.
In the second all-Swiss final in Challenger Tour history (Marc Rosset vs. Roland Stadler, Nyon 1989), Alexander Ritschard defeated Henri Laaksonen 7-5, 6-5 (ret.) to win the Challenger Hamburg.
“It was a tough week,” Ritschard said. “I had many tough matches, I played everything point-for-point and somehow managed to sneak out the win.”
Alexander Ritschard during Sunday's Hamburg Challenger final. Credit: Witters Sportfotografie
For the first time in Challenger history, four Swiss players have won a Challenger title in the same season. Ritschard joins Dominic Stricker (Cleveland, Zug), Marc-Andrea Huesler (Mexico City, Aguascalientes) and Antoine Bellier (San Luis Potosi) as Swiss champions in 2022.
After collecting his maiden Challenger title, the Zurich native opened up about the inspiration he felt this week after receiving a difficult phone call.
“I got some bad news from my family this past week that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Ritschard said. “Not something I’d like to hear on the road. They found it pretty early, I’m confident she will be okay. It definitely helped with the motivation [this week].”
Ritschard, World No. 166, is three spots shy of tying his career-high 163 and following the championship match, the 28-year-old acknowledged that his goal for the remainder of the season is to finish in the Top 150.