A pair of #NextGenATP youngsters were among six ATP Challenger Tour champions last week. American Zachary Svajda rallied from a set down in the Tiburon Challenger final to collect his maiden Challenger title while Kazakhstan’s Timofey Skatov triumphed at the Parma Challenger presented by Iren.
Svajda spoiled countryman Ben Shelton’s 20th birthday Sunday, defeating the lefty 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to win in Tiburon, California.
“In the first set, Ben played lights out,” Svajda said. “I was nervous, I was getting tight, double faulting quite a bit. I knew in the second set I was going to have to change something up, try spinning my serve in so I don’t have to hit second serves and also try to put more pace on the ball. That was the momentum switch.”
The 19-year-old, who climbs to a career-high No. 255 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is the 11th teenage Challenger champion of this season. The two-time USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships titlist joins fellow San Diego native Brandon Nakashima (Quimper-2, February 2021) as the only American teenage Challenger champion in the past five years.
The title came to Svajda’s surprise. In just his seventh Challenger tournament of the year, the youngster needed a deciding set tie-break in his first two matches to stay alive.
“I wasn’t expecting to win the tournament,” Svajda said. “I could’ve been out in the first round. I could’ve been out in the second round, 1-5 in the third. I told myself, ‘Never give up and just see what happens!’”
In 2019, Svajda made his Tour-level debut at the US Open, where he squandered a two-set lead to Italian Paolo Lorenzi in the first round. The-then 16-year-old became the youngest male player to compete at the US Open since Donald Young in 2005. In 2021, Svajda earned his first Tour-level win at Flushing Meadows (d. Cecchinato), before falling short to Jannik Sinner.
Shelton, who has finished runner-up at three of his past four Challenger tournaments, rises to a career-high 160 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
At the Challenger 125 event in Parma, Italy, Skatov needed three hours, eight minutes to prevail against Slovakian Jozek Kovalik 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-4 and claim his maiden Challenger title. Skatov, who is 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan, ended Kovalik’s nine-match winning streak and is the first Kazakh Challenger champion this season.
Timofey Skatov in action at the 2022 Parma Challenger.” />
Timofey Skatov in action at…
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