Challenger
Challenger Q3: Fonseca’s first title marks milestone breakthrough
Dzumhur leads Challenger season with 5 titles
September 09, 2024
Rena Behar
Joao Fonseca is the youngest ATP Challenger Tour champion of 2024.
By ATP Employees
For gamers with aspirations of competing on the most important levels on the ATP Tour and in Grand Slam tournaments, all of it begins on the ATP Challenger Tour. Such was the case for Jannik Sinner, who claimed his second main title Sunday on the US Open.
Roughly 5 years earlier than his second Slam trophy, the Italian was lifting the trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour occasion in Lexington, Kentucky as a 17-year-old.
Is that this omen for Joao Fonseca, the Brazilian who final month claimed the Lexington Challenger title simply in the future youthful than Sinner? The #NextGenATP star’s triumph in Kentucky headlines key moments on the ATP Challenger Tour from Q3:
Quick-Rising Fonseca:Lower than a yr faraway from successful the 2023 US Open boys’ singles occasion, Fonseca didn’t drop a set en path to claiming his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Lexington. The Rio de Janeiro native, who turned 18 two-and-a-half weeks after his triumph, is the youngest Brazilian to win an ATP Challenger Tour title.
“Within the ceremony, they gave me the trophy and introduced, ‘Lexington is the primary Challenger to have three 17-year-old champions. He mentioned, ‘Shang Juncheng [2022], Jannik Sinner [2019],’” recalled Fonseca, sixth within the PIF ATP Stay Race To Jeddah. “That’s very nice.”
Fonseca entered the week having misplaced 4 of his previous 5 matches throughout ranges. However the teen shortly rebounded, turning into the second-youngest South American participant to win a hard-court Challenger event, solely behind Juan Martin del Potro.
Learn ATPTour.com’s characteristic on Fonseca with insights from {the teenager} and his dad and mom.
Fellow #NextGenATP Champions:Fonseca was not the one teenage titlist to make historical past this previous quarter. Gabriel Debru, 18, turned the third-youngest Frenchman to win a number of Challenger trophies (since 1978), becoming a member of former Prime 10 stars Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. Debru received the Troyes Challenger (July) and in Como in September.
Vilius Gaubas survived a marathon, three-hour, two-minute ultimate in Cordenons to carry his maiden Challenger title. The 19-year-old, seventh within the PIF ATP Stay Race To Jeddah, is the youngest of three Lithuanian champions in Challenger historical past.
Youngest ATP Challenger Tour champions in 2024
Damir Dzumhur’s Dominant Title Run:It has been a resurgent yr for former World No. 23 Damir Dzumhur, who boasts a season-leading 5 Challenger titles. No different participant has received greater than three this season. The 32-year-old returned to the Prime 100 in August for the primary time in four-and-a-half years. The Bosnian has triumphed in Barletta, Ostrava, Zagreb, Santo Domingo and Istanbul, with the latter two coming up to now month.
“I am not carried out but. This isn’t the place I wish to cease. I simply wish to go step-by-step,” Dzumhur mentioned final month. “I am undoubtedly extra motivated [knowing] that I obtained again to the Prime 100. It is undoubtedly good to see your identify among the many Prime 100 gamers.”
Richard Gasquet Positive aspects One other Place In File Books:The Frenchman claimed his first Challenger title since 2017 in Cassis to turn into the third-oldest champion at that degree, solely behind Ivo Karlovic and Fernando Verdasco. Gasquet has made Challenger historical past all through his two-decade-plus profession, having turn into the second-youngest to win a title as a 16-year-old in 2002.
Wu Yibing Wins Comeback Event:The Chinese language star capped a dream comeback week by triumphing on dwelling soil in Jinan. Taking part in in simply his second event since final yr’s US Open and first since April’s ATP 250 in Houston, Wu went all the best way to seize his fifth Challenger title as World No. 582.
“That was my objective earlier than coming right here,” the wild card Wu mentioned of successful the trophy. “I’ve excessive expectations of myself and in addition my staff, all of us work exhausting for it. It’s been greater than [four] months since my final event. I really feel blissful. It’s step one of coming again. And hopefully extra to come back.”
