Two #NextGenATP players made a splash on the ATP Challenger Tour this past week.
Dino Prizmic, 18, continued his rapid rise by winning the Banja Luka Open on Sunday while Italian Matteo Gigante collected his second Challenger trophy of the season, claiming the Serena Wines 1881 – Acqua Maniva Tennis Cup on home soil. All five of this week’s Challenger champions rose to career-high rankings on Monday.
Prizmic downed fifth seed and Belgian Kimmer Coppejans 6-2, 6-3 in the final to become the youngest Croatian champion since a 17-year-old Borna Coric in 2014. Prizmic, who won this year’s Roland Garros boys’ singles title, is the first player to win a Grand Slam junior crown and a Challenger title in the same season since Wu Yibing in 2017.
“It’s an amazing feeling because this is my first Challenger win,” said Prizmic, who is at No. 175 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. “I hope I will continue like this. I’m very happy because this year’s work is showing up.”
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A quarter-finalist at last month’s ATP 250 event in Umag, Prizmic is the second-youngest Challenger winner of 2023, only behind 17-year-old Jakub Mensik, who won in Prague in May.
In an all-#NextGenATP final, Gigante cruised past Austrian Lukas Neumayer 6-0, 6-2 in Cordenons, where the third-longest active Italian Challenger was celebrating their 20th anniversary.
The Rome native, who won his maiden Challenger title in Tenerife in February, joins Luca van Assche and Dominic Stricker as #NextGenATP players with titles on both hard and clay this season (Challenger level). Following his triumph in Cordenons, Gigante climbed to World No. 162.
Matteo Gigante wins the Challenger 75 event in Cordenons, Italy. Credit: Antonio Ros
Australian Adam Walton secured his maiden Challenger title in Cary, North Carolina, where the 24-year-old saved two championship points to down Nicolas Moreno De Alboran 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 at the Atlantic Tire Championships I.
“I haven’t been playing Challengers for that long, so I haven’t played many of these guys before so it’s all very new to me, but I’m excited for what the future holds,” Walton said. “It’s my first Challenger title so I’m very happy to get that one.”
Walton is the seventh different singles winner from the University of Tennessee in Challenger history (since 1978). At a career-high No. 206 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Walton is the 11th Challenger champion of 2023 to have competed collegiately in the United States.
Adam Walton wins the…
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