Landaluce, 18, joins Alcaraz, Nadal in slice of Challenger history
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/martin-landaluce/l0il/overview'Martin Landaluce/a added his name to an elite company Sunday when he triumphed at the ATP Challenger Tour 125 event in Olbia, Italy./p
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The 18-year-old, who defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mattia-bellucci/b0gg/overview'Mattia Bellucci/a 6-4, 6-4 in the final, is the youngest Spanish Challenger champion since an 18-year-old a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a in Oeiras in 2021./p
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Landaluce is the fifth Spaniard since 2000 to win a Challenger title at age 18 or younger. The first four players all ascended to the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings: Alcaraz, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tommy-robredo/r419/overview'Tommy Robredo/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/nicolas-almagro/a479/overview'Nicolas Almagro/a./ppFollowing his title run, the #NextGenATP star is up to eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, putting him in qualifying position for the 20-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals, which runs from 18-22 December./pp /
pDue to rain at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/olbia/2893/2024/results'Olbia Challenger/a, Landaluce was forced to play both his semi-final and final match on Sunday. The 2022 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a boys' singles champion showed no signs of nerves as he captured the milestone victory./p
p"I have had several Challenger semi-finals. I think there have been different things in all of them, I tried to do them in the best way possible and today I have made it to the semi-final and final on a day that I think is a bit difficult physically," Landaluce said in Spanish. "I was able to enjoy it a lot with a high level. On match point, I didn't think much either. I thought about trying to do what I know. I played a very good point and I finished it in the best way, which is very, very nice."/p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"Sportship at its finest ???????????? Spanish stars backing the next generationa href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnTheRise?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#OnTheRise/a | a href="https://twitter.com/RafaelNadal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@RafaelNadal/a | a href="https://twitter.com/carlosalcaraz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@carlosalcaraz/a | a href="https://twitter.com/MartinLandaluce?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@MartinLandaluce/a a href="https://t.co/1rBp4aQbek"pic.twitter.com/1rBp4aQbek/a/p
mdash; ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) a href="https://twitter.com/ATPChallenger/status/1848376547901583740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 21, 2024/a/blockquote
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strongSt. Brieuc, France/strongbr /
In other Challenger action, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/benjamin-bonzi/bm95/overview'Benjamin Bonzi/a claimed back-to-back titles on home soil by lifting the trophy at the Open Saint-Brieuc Armor Agglomeacute;ration. Last weekrsquo;s champion in Roanne, Bonzi is on a 10-match winning streak for the loss of just one set. The 28-year-old downed top seed and countryman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lucas-pouille/pf39/overview'Lucas Pouille/a 6-1, 6-3 in the final./p
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strongCalgary, Canada/strongbr /
American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/murphy-cassone/c0ht/overview'Murphy Cassone/a wonrsquo;t soon forget his maiden Challenger title run at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/calgary/9128/2024/results'Calgary National Bank Challenger/a. Down five match points in the opening round against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ryan-seggerman/s0dl/overview'Ryan Seggerman/a, the 22-year-old stayed alive by winning the deciding-set tie-break 15/13. Cassone again won a deciding-set tie-break in the quarter-finals against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexis-galarneau/gk06/overview'Alexis Galarneau/a./p
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Cassone, a senior at Arizona State University, began the week as a qualifier and left with his biggest career title. He defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/govind-nanda/n0al/overview'Govind Nanda/a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final and is now up to a career-high No. 363 in the PIF ATP Rankings./p
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strongCampinas, Brazil/strongbr /
It was a marathon week for American a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tristan-boyer/b0ej/overview'Tristan Boyer/a, who needed a deciding set in four of his five matches to win the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/campinas/6307/2024/results'Campeonato Internacional de Tenis, Presented by Santander/a in Brazil. The 23-year-old overcame Argentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juan-pablo-ficovich/fa43/overview'Juan Pablo Ficovich/a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the championship match. Up to a career-high No. 159 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Boyer this season has won two Challenger titles, which both came on clay./p
p"It feels great. I think it's a reflection of the work I'm doing," Boyer said. "Titles are extremely difficult. You have to win five tough matches in a row. I've only had one in my career before today."/p
pimg alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tristan-boyer/b0ej/overview'Tristan Boyer/a in action at the Campinas Challenger." style="width:100%;" src="/-/media/images/news/2024/10/21/03/59/boyer-campinasch-2024.jpg" /br /
emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tristan-boyer/b0ej/overview'Tristan Boyer/a in action at the Campinas Challenger. Credit: Joatilde;o Pires/sup/em/p
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strongShenzhen, China/strongbr /
Former World No. 37 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mackenzie-mcdonald/mk66/overview'Mackenzie McDonald/a claimed his fourth Challenger title and first since 2021 by triumphing at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/shenzhen/7797/2024/results'Shenzhen Longhua Open/a, where he defeated top-seeded Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-cazaux/c0h0/overview'Arthur Cazaux/a 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final. The American was broken just once all week./p
pimg alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mackenzie-mcdonald/mk66/overview'Mackenzie McDonald/a wins the Shenzhen Challenger." style="width:100%;" src="/-/media/images/news/2024/10/21/03/56/mcdonald-shenzhench-2024.jpg" /br /
emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mackenzie-mcdonald/mk66/overview'Mackenzie McDonald/a wins the Shenzhen Challenger. Credit: a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/shenzhen/7797/2024/results'Shenzhen Longhua Open/a/sup/em/p
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