Challenger Q3: Joao Fonseca’s first title marks milestone breakthrough | ATP Tour

Challenger

Challenger Q3: Fonseca’s first title marks milestone breakthrough

Dzumhur leads Challenger season with 5 titles

September 09, 2024

For gamers with aspirations of competing on the largest 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 a very good omen for Joao Fonseca, the Brazilian who final month claimed the Lexington Challenger title simply someday 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 profitable 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 Dwell 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 function on Fonseca with insights from {the teenager} and his mother and father.

Fellow #NextGenATP Champions:
Fonseca was not the one teenage titlist to make historical past this previous quarter. Gabriel Debru, 18, grew to become the third-youngest Frenchman to win a number of Challenger trophies (since 1978), becoming a member of former High 10 stars Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. Debru gained the Troyes Challenger (July) and in Como in September.

Vilius Gaubas survived a marathon, three-hour, two-minute closing in Cordenons to raise his maiden Challenger title. The 19-year-old, seventh within the PIF ATP Dwell 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 gained greater than three this season. The 32-year-old returned to the High 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 prior to now month.

“I am not finished but. This isn’t the place I wish to cease. I simply wish to go step-by-step,” Dzumhur mentioned final month. “I am positively extra motivated [knowing] that I obtained again to the High 100. It is positively good to see your identify among the many High 100 gamers.”

Richard Gasquet Positive aspects One other Place In Report Books:
The Frenchman claimed his first Challenger title since 2017 in Cassis to change 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 change 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 house soil in Jinan. Enjoying 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 aim earlier than coming right here,” the wild card Wu mentioned of profitable the trophy. “I’ve excessive expectations of myself and likewise my staff, all of us work laborious for it. It’s been greater than [four] months since my final event. I really feel pleased. It’s step one of coming again. And hopefully extra to return.”