Harris returns to Top 100 after Surbiton Challenger triumph; Nagal hits career-high

11.06.2024 06:00

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lloyd-harris/hg86/overview'Lloyd Harris/a returned to the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings Monday for the first time in 21 months following his triumph at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/surbiton/7297/2024/results'Lexus Surbiton Trophy/a, the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event that kickstarts the grass-court season./p

The South African, who underwent right wrist surgery in June 2022, downed Swiss a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/leandro-riedi/r0fs/overview'Leandro Riedi/a 7-6(8), 7-5 in Sunday's final, during which Harris won 85 per cent of his first-serve points and fended off all six break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats. /p

The 27-year-old has won 16 of his past 17 Challenger-level matches including title runs in Shenzhen and Gwangju. Harris is one of four players to win a trio of ATP Challenger Tour titles this season. The former World No. 31 is the first South African to claim a grass-court Challenger title since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/wesley-moodie/m759/overview'Wesley Moodie/a in 2003./p

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ldquo;Super stoked. Honestly, itrsquo;s like a sigh of relief in a way,rdquo; said Harris, No. 98 in the PIF ATP Rankings. ldquo;When I won the first match, I was saying to the team that Irsquo;ve never started the grass season by winning the first match. It was a huge sign for me. I feel much more confident and comfortable on the grass. /p

ldquo;I think itrsquo;s the biggest Challenger title that Irsquo;ve won in my career. The fact that itrsquo;s on a new surface shows that my game is progressing and evolving as Irsquo;m progressing back to where I want to be. Itrsquo;s still one small stepping stone in a long way to go.rdquo; /p

In other ATP Challenger Tour action, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sumit-nagal/n897/overview'Sumit Nagal/a claimed his sixth trophy at that level by winning the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/heilbronn/460/2024/results'NECKARCUP/a in Heilbronn, Germany, where the Indian overcame Swiss a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-ritschard/rc04/overview'Alexander Ritschard/a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 in the final. The 26-year-old is now at a career-high No. 77 following his second Challenger title of the season. /p

ldquo;Elated to win the title in Heilbronn this week. It was an important week for me, and Irsquo;m proud to have produced my best tennis when it mattered the most,rdquo; Nagal wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter./p

pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/06/11/19/32/nagal-heilbronnch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sumit-nagal/n897/overview'Sumit Nagal/a wins the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Heilbronn, Germany." /br /

emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sumit-nagal/n897/overview'Sumit Nagal/a wins the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Heilbronn, Germany. Credit: Philipp Foell/sup/em/p

While Swiss players Riedi and Ritschard finished runner-up, their countryman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jerome-kym/k0ep/overview'Jerome Kym/a went one step further to claim his maiden ATP Challenger Tour crown. The 21-year-old advanced through qualifying en route to winning the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/prostejov/558/2024/results'Unicredit Czech Open/a in Prostejov, ending a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/chun-hsin-tseng/t0ap/overview'Chun-Hsin Tseng/arsquo;s nine-match winning streak in the final with 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory against the Chinese Taipei player. Kym is up to No. 281 in the PIF ATP Rankings, marking his Top 300 debut./p

pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/06/11/19/33/kym-prostejovch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jerome-kym/k0ep/overview'Jerome Kym/a in action at the Prostejov Challenger." /br /

emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jerome-kym/k0ep/overview'Jerome Kym/a in action at the Prostejov Challenger. Credit: a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/prostejov/558/2024/results'Unicredit Czech Open/a/sup/em/p

a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/damir-dzumhur/d923/overview'Damir Dzumhur/a collected his third ATP Challenger Tour trophy of the season and 11th overall with a title run at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/zagreb/9500/2024/results'Zagreb Open/a. The 32-year-old, who hails from Bosnia and Herzegovina, needed a deciding set in three of his five matches to triumph in Croatia, but cruised past wild card a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luka-mikrut/m0n1/overview'Luka Mikrut/a 7-5, 6-0 in the final. /p

At No. 111 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Dzumhur is inching closer towards returning to the Top 100 for the first time since February 2020. /p

Japanrsquo;s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/james-trotter/t0bw/overview'James Trotter/a dropped just one set all week at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/tyler/2873/2024/results'Tyler Tennis Championships/a, where he defeated American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-holt/h09p/overview'Brandon Holt/a 6-2, 7-6(3) in the championship match. The former Ohio State University standout, who partnered Hans Huch Verdugo to also win the doubles title in Texas, saved four match points in the singles semi-final against #NextGenATP a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/coleman-wong/w0bh/overview'Coleman Wong/a./p

pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/06/11/19/37/trotter-tylerch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/james-trotter/t0bw/overview'James Trotter/a at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/tyler/2873/2024/results'Tyler Tennis Championships/a, where he won his first ATP Challenger Tour title." /br /

emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/james-trotter/t0bw/overview'James Trotter/a at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/tyler/2873/2024/results'Tyler Tennis Championships/a, where he won his first ATP Challenger Tour title. Credit: a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/tyler/2873/2024/results'Tyler Tennis Championships/a/sup/em/p

a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrea-collarini/cc66/overview'Andrea Collarini/a won the all-Argentine final on home soil, downing a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/facundo-mena/mj98/overview'Facundo Mena/a 6-2, 6-3 to win the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/santa-fe/2887/2024/results'AAT Challenger Santander Edicion Santa Fe/a. The 32-year-old lefty is a four-time ATP Challenger champion, with half of his title runs coming in 2024./p

pstrongDid You Know?/strongbr /

The six ATP Challenger Tour events held during the first week of June marks the only week on the calendar with tournaments at that level on all three surfaces./pblockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"✨ Doubles delight ✨brbrCongratulations, champs! a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ATPChallenger?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ATPChallenger/a a href="https://t.co/as3nsFzGun"pic.twitter.com/as3nsFzGun/a/pmdash; ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) a href="https://twitter.com/ATPChallenger/status/1799893981305979366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"June 9, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script