Napolitano rallies to claim his second ATP Challenger crown

Napolitano with the big prize after his triumph in the dafaNews Bengaluru Open on February 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain

 Stefano Napolitano capped a fine week by capturing only his second ATP Challenger title with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Seongchan Hong in the final of the dafaNews Bengaluru Open at the KSLTA courts inside Cubbon Park here on Sunday.

The triumph will make the Italian richer by $18,230 but more importantly the 100 points earned will propel the 28-year-old — who last won a Challenger more than seven years ago — into the 160s (from No. 204 in the world).

At the start, there was little to separate the two. The first five games saw three breaks of serve, and only when Hong held to 4-1 (to love) did the contest appear to settle. Napolitano’s was the heftier stroke, but Hong scurried all over the turf, redirected his opponent’s pace and seemed omnipresent as he took the first set 6-4.

But the 26-year-old relaxed a tad at the start of the second and in no time Napolitano was up 4-1. Hong continued to impress with his court-coverage and even ran up a break-point in the seventh game with a miraculous angled pass off a low ball that was about to be gobbled up by the court.

Napolitano, however, did not dial down on his aggression and duly levelled the match, with a superb scissored volley to get to set-point the stand-out shot.

The decider witnessed a repeat-act; Napolitano went up 3-1 only for Hong to relentlessly keep up the chase. The latter even dug himself out of a hole twice — from 0-30 in the fifth game and from 15-30 in the seventh.

But the pressure finally told in the ninth as Napolitano came up with three crunching winners to end Hong’s resistance.