Cerundolo claims back-to-back Challenger titles; Goffin returns to winners' circle

pArgentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juan-manuel-cerundolo/c0c8/overview'Juan Manuel Cerundolo/a is red hot on the red clay./pp

The 22-year-old claimed his second consecutive ATP Challenger Tour title Saturday when he won the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/santa-cruz/9479/2024/results'Challenger Bolivia/a 2 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a week after he won in Lima./p

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Cerundolo defeated Ecuadorian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alvaro-guillen-meza/g0dh/overview'Alvaro Guillen Meza/a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the final after saving five of the 10 break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and battled past physical struggles to lift his ninth ATP Challenger Tour trophy. /p

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"It was a tough final against a strong opponent, made even more challenging by the wind and a blister,rdquo; said the top-seeded lefty, who is on a 10-match winning streak at the Challenger level. ldquo;Despite that, I went out to compete in the third set, and the victory came.rdquo; /p[ATP APP]

pThis is not the first time Cerundolo has captured back-to-back titles on the ATP Challenger Tour. In January 2023, he opened the season by winning a pair of trophies in Tigre, Argentina./pp

In other ATP Challenger Tour action, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-goffin/gb88/overview'David Goffin/a was crowned champion at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/ilkley/9005/2024/results'Lexus Ilkley Trophy/a, where the Belgian captured his first grass-court title. The former No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings dropped just one set en route to the title, racing past Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/harold-mayot/m0g4/overview'Harold Mayot/a 6-4, 6-2 in the final. /p

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"It was a really good week. Five solid grass matches and the level was there. It gives me a lot of confidence for [a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a],rdquo; Goffin said. ldquo;It means a lot because I haven't won a trophy for some time and I managed to put it all together this week.rdquo; /p

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A nine-time ATP Challenger Tour champion, Goffin has previously enjoyed final runs at the ATP Tour grass events in lsquo;s-Hertogenbosch (2015) and Halle (2019). The 33-year-old is the second Belgian to win the Ilkley Challenger in three years. a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zizou-bergs/bu13/overview'Zizou Bergs/a triumphed at the 125 event in 2022. /pblockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"There#39;s a new grass court champion in town ????brbrFormer World No.7 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-goffin/gb88/overview'David Goffin/a secures the first grass court title of his career, defeating Mayot 6-4, 6-2 in the Ilkley final a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ATPChallenger?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ATPChallenger/a a href="https://t.co/7kYkyRFPM8"pic.twitter.com/7kYkyRFPM8/a/pmdash; ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) a href="https://twitter.com/ATPChallenger/status/1804526678611251617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"June 22, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

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Dutchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jesper-de-jong/d0c1/overview'Jesper de Jong/a won the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/sassuolo/9835/2024/results'Emilia-Romagna Tennis Cup/a in Sassuolo, Italy, where he defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-altmaier/ae14/overview'Daniel Altmaier/a 7-6(5), 6-1 in the final. Following his title run, the 24-year-old De Jong is at a career-high No. 119 in the PIF ATP Rankings. De Jong rallied from a set down in the quarter-finals and semis to keep his title hopes alive, eventually claiming his third ATP Challenger Tour crown. /p

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ldquo;It was a tiring week, but at the same time a fantastic one,rdquo; De Jong said. ldquo;My goal is to be in the Top 100 by the end of the year and this victory gives me a great push to move up in the rankings and be confident ahead of a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a qualifying.rdquo; /p

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a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maks-kasnikowski/k0hc/overview'Maks Kasnikowski/a is also at a career-high ranking, World No. 184, after winning the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/poznan/786/2024/results'Enea Poznan Open/a. Cheered on by his home crowd, the 20-year-old Pole rallied past Argentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/camilo-ugo-carabelli/u182/overview'Camilo Ugo Carabelli/a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the final to lift his second ATP Challenger Tour trophy of the year. Kasnikowski won the season-opening Oeiras Challenger./p

pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/06/24/11/55/kasnikowski-poznanch-2024.jpg" style="width:100%" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maks-kasnikowski/k0hc/overview'Maks Kasnikowski/a celebrates winning the Poznan Challenger." /br/emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maks-kasnikowski/k0hc/overview'Maks Kasnikowski/a celebrates winning the Poznan Challenger. Credit: Karolina Kiraga-Rychter/a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/poznan/786/2024/results'Enea Poznan Open/a/sup/em/p

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In the 29-year history of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/poznan/786/2024/results'Enea Poznan Open/a, Kasnikowski is the third Polish champion, joining a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jerzy-janowicz/j397/overview'Jerzy Janowicz/a (2012) and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hubert-hurkacz/hb71/overview'Hubert Hurkacz/a (2018). Kasnikowki is one of three players with ATP Challenger Tour titles on both clay and hard in 2024, alongside a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sumit-nagal/n897/overview'Sumit Nagal/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefano-napolitano/n679/overview'Stefano Napolitano/a. /p

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Lithuanian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ricardas-berankis/be90/overview'Ricardas Berankis/a did not drop a set all week at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/blois/6757/2024/results'Internationaux de Tennis de Blois/a in France to claim his 15th ATP Challenger Tour title. The 34-year-old, who ousted home hope a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/calvin-hemery/hb48/overview'Calvin Hemery/a 7-6(4), 7-5 in the final, is one of three active players with 15 ATP Challenger Tour titles (a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/facundo-bagnis/bf23/overview'Facundo Bagnis/a, 17, and Mikhail Kukukshin, 15). Due to substantial rain all week in Blois, Berankis was forced to play all five of his matches indoors. /pp[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p