Five Challenger players to watch at the US Open | ATP Tour

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Five Challenger players to watch at the US Open

Home hope Tien debuts against Fils in #NextGenATP clash

August 25, 2024

ATPtour.com takes a look at five ATP Challenger Tour players to keep your eyes peeled for during the US Open.

Student Tien
The 18-year-old arrives at Flushing Meadows fresh off a dream start to the first week of the ATP Tour, reaching the quarterfinals in Winston-Salem as a seed. The eighth seed in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Tien survived a marathon tournament last month at the Bloomfield Hills Challenger, where he needed a decision in all five of his matches to lift the trophy.

Tien became the 10th youngest American Challenger champion, joining the likes of Andy Roddick, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, to whom the teenager lost in the first round of the US Open last year. The lefty will look to rely on his consistent baseline play to challenge the world’s best in his third consecutive US Open appearance. In the first round, Tien faces fellow #NextGenATP and 24th seed Arthur Fils.

Mattia Bellucci
It’s been a red-hot month for the Italian inching closer to his first Top 100, currently World No. 101 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Bellucci made a tour-level quarter-final in Atlanta and followed that up by qualifying against Washington and reaching the second round. The 23-year-old held two tournament points at the ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Cary, North Carolina, but fell to Roman Safiullin after almost three hours.

After qualifying for a third straight majors appearance, the lefty starts against 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka.

Buyunchaokete
In May, the 22-year-old became the youngest Chinese player to win the most ATP Challenger Tour titles. With title runs in Wuxi and Granby three months ago, ‘Bu’ has climbed more than 100 places in the PIF ATP Rankings since the first week of May. The tournament is now ranked world No. 123.

‘Bu’ have won 15 of their last 17 matches at all levels. The three-time ATP Challenger Tour champion faces eighth seed and 2022 qualifier Casper Ruud in the opening round. These two days are Buyunchaokete’s first major draw.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard
The formidable Frenchman used the ATP Challenger Tour as a frontrunner this season before breaking into the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Rankings. Champion Perricard collected three Challenger titles on hard courts from February to April and won his home ATP 250 in Lyon, where he saved a point to win against Tomas Martin Etcheverry, his first-round opponent this week.

The 21-year-old, who is six-foot-eight, 21, made a surprise fourth-round upset at Wimbledon, starting that week by smashing 55 aces to upset 20th-seeded Sebastian Korda. Over the course of two days, there will be a clash with fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the third round, but Coach Perricard will be focused on the task at hand as he makes his US Open debut.

Dominic Stricker
An injury has unfortunately sidelined the Swiss lefty from further competition in 2024, but now Stricker returns to a place where he has fond memories of last year. Stricker produced fearless, hard hitting to upset seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas as a qualifier on his way to the fourth round in New York.

A semifinalist at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, the 22-year-old is playing in just his ninth tournament of the season at all levels. The striker faces Argentina’s Francisco Comesana in the first round.