#eurofirms challenger - costa brava

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Girona Ch F: Pedro Martinez def. Radu Albot 7-5, 6-4 Match Stats

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Although this match appeared competitive with both players trying to out-winner each other with their point constructions, Albot could neither create nor convert any break points as a result of P. Martinez's clutch follow-ups. In contrast, P. Martinez's shot winners on the crucial points could press Albot's baseline game further, eventually converting 33% of his 6 break points thanks to his aggression as he controlled the pace as accurately as possible.

Furthermore, P. Martinez appeared slightly more solid on serve than R. Albot. Although the latter fired 2 aces, the former still had a more consistent showing since he won 5% more first serve points at 72%. On the other hand, Albot double-faulted once, but his third-shot rushes under pressure while setting up the second set faded his second serve winning percentage to 43%, 19% lesser than P. Martinez as the match progressed.

This marked P. Martinez's first Challenger title of the year, solidifying his Top 100 rank coming into the clay season by ranking 76 post-title. His next tournament will be the Estoril (250), where he will face Daniel Altmaier in the first round. Should be interesting to follow the peak clay season moving forward, especially en route to the French Open/Roland Garros.

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After a solid closing to the first set, P. Martinez continued such display by breaking early to 1-0 thanks to his forehand winner while trying to take advantage of Albot being slightly off-balance with his third-shot errors, notably consolidating the lead to 2-0 with a forehand lob winner. Since then, he had not looked back even if he faced a stiff opposition, one of those being Albot's volley in response to P. Martinez's drop shot before the latter held his serves to 5-3.

Two games later, P. Martinez earned his opportunity to serve for the match. However, he had his 5 match points fumbled as a result of his prevalent forehand errors, while the fourth match point save came from Albot's preceding forehand to P. Martinez's up-in-the-air response. Eventually, P. Martinez converted his match point in his sixth try, thus he won his first Challenger title of the year and solidified his position in the Top 100 coming into the clay season.

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📸 ATP official website

This week's Challenger finals kicked off in the Girona Challenger, where Radu Albot, who previously defeated lucky loser Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals to reach his first Challenger finals in 2 years, faced Pedro Martinez, who later that day defeated Benjamin Hassan 6-4, 7-5. The first set turned out to deliver the goods on their point construction, where the difference becamw thin except for the latter pressure points.

From the earlier parts of the match, Albot always found a way to escape several troubles, as he mostly finished with a forehand winner before volleying his way to set his one-point lead. He then forced a deuce thanks to one of the said forehand winners before P. Martinez held his serves to 2-2, followed by Albot's running forehand winner to secure his service game hold to 3-2. This was then followed by a tweener winner from P. Martinez to hold his serves 3-3.

It took four consecutive holds before the Spaniard appearing slightly more offensive, firing a short ball for Albot's volley error for his break point before its conversion thanks to the former's timely volley, highlighting the importance of his anticipation (6-5). As a result, P. Martinez earned his chance to serve for the set, which he successfully did to take the first set 7-5.

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Girona Ch SF: Radu Albot def. Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo [LL] 6-4, 6-2 Match Stats

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Right from the setup, Albot already pressed Sanchez Izquierdo's baseline game as he went after the latter's backhands before injecting his own pace, scoring several notable shot winners in between as a form of his offensives. Sanchez Izquierdo tried to absorb the pace earlier on as evident from his break points (4, all of those came from the first set), but he could not keep up with the said pace as Albot regained the rhythm in time to fire a forehand winner as a conclusion to the first set. Since then, Albot appeared firmer in his aggression, which helped him to convert 67% of 6 break points throughout both sets.

Furthermore, Albot also appeared solid on serve despite conceding just one service game by the end of the first set. Even though both players did not score any aces, the Moldovan still managed to win 11% more points from his first serves with a 66% percentage, and he turned out to have a fairly consistent service games as he also had an equivalent percentage from his second serves (66%). On the other hand, Sanchez Izquierdo had a more vulnerable second serve as he only won!47% of his second serve points, worsened by his 2 double faults, both of those came in the middle of the second set as a cause of Albot's early break.

Appearing in his first Challenger final since the Busan Challenger 2022 runner-up, as well as a clay Challenger final since the Poznan Challenger 2016, Albot will face a resurgent Pedro Martinez, who just defeated an in-form Benjamin Hassan 6-4, 7-5 in a more solid showing as the former foiled one chance to serve for the match earlier on. A possibly intriguing match-up to see how their point construction fares against each other, particularly as the emphasis to balance become crucial. Should be a fun final as well for the day!

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Albot's point construction capabilities then continued in setting up the second set, where his final forehand, which turned out to be in, secured a crucial one-point lead before having his break point initially foiled by Sanchez Izquierdo's volley, but it was insufficient as the former still broke early to 2-1. After consolidating the lead to 3-1, in a similar manner where both players tried to go deep from the baseline, Sanchez Izquierdo had a working volley to force the first deuce as he saved the earliest break point, but either player still had to undergo the forever deuce situation.

By the end of that game, Albot was proven to build better points as he doubled the break (4-1) as the court opened, leaving a room for Albot's final volley after firing a drop shot to Sanchez Izquierdo's preceding volley. It took two consecutive holds later before Albot earned his chance to serve for the match, which he ultimately did to take the second set 6-2, eventually securing his first Challenger final appearance since 2022.

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📸 ATP official website

Kicking off the action in the Girona Challenger singles semifinal was the match between Radu Albot, who defeated Javier Barranco Cosano 7-6(3), 6-3 in the quarterfinals, and lucky loser Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo, who advanced due to his fellow lucky loser Joao Sousa's walkover due to his lower back injury prior to his last dance next week in Estoril in the quarterfinals after the former won his second-round match against qualifier Gastao Elias 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 as a revenge to his second-qualifying-round loss a few days prior. While one's properly executed aggression put themselves ahead in this match, keeping it solid became another challenge by the end of the set before possibly other troubles came in afterward.

It all started from the third game as Sanchez Izquierdo's backhands were being sought. It was the cause for Albot's one-point lead to 15-30, the creation of his break point, and a netted backhand for its conversion to 2-1. The Spanish lucky loser then created a break point due to Albot's +1 forehand error and another one from the former's preceding forehand, but Sanchez Izquierdo's forehand error caused the second deuce before Albot solidifying the said lead to 3-1. Somehow, he found his break doubled (4-1) thanks to his defenses, finishing with a notable forehand pass to Sanchez Izquierdo being caught off-guard at the net for a crucial equalizer before the latter's 2 consecutive double faults for the said break.

Albot's shot-making prowess then continued with a forehand lob to win him the first point before consolidating the lead further with a hold to 5-1, but when he had to serve for the first set for the first time 2 games later, Sanchez Izquierdo's cross-court forehand to Albot's failed slices started things before the latter erred his forehands for the break (5-3), signifying Sanchez Izquierdo hung on through his pacing. The Spaniard then held his serves to 5-4, and almost turned the tables as he created another break point from his backhand finish to Albot getting run over from his forehand side, but Albot managed to save them all before successfully firing his forehand pass to serve it out for the first set to 6-4.

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Girona Ch R2: Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo [LL] def. Gastao Elias [Q] 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 Match Stats

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Gastao tried to stay aggressive with his range in the first set, but as soon as Sanchez Izquierdo absorbed his pace and outhit Gastao's forehand side in the other two sets, the latter went out of range from the baseline. As a result, there was a slight difference on their break point conversion rate, where Sanchez Izquierdo converted 27% of his 11 break points compared to Gastao's 20% conversion rate out of his 10 break points, most of which came from the first two sets.

On the other hand, there were several notable differences in their service games. While Gastao had a commendable first serve winning percentage with 73%, 3% above Sanchez Izquierdo thanks to his 5 aces, which mostly got himself out of trouble, the latter had a better margin in terms of their second serves. This was evident as Sanchez Izquierdo double-faulted four times than Gastao's 3, but he could still win 14% more of his second serve points due to the latter's frequent unforced errors under pressure while following things up.

Since his fellow lucky loser Joao Sousa withdrew from their quarterfinal match due to a lower back injury after giving his all in the first two rounds before his last dance next week in Estoril (250), Sanchez Izquierdo directly advanced to the semifinals, where he faced the winner between another lucky loser in Javier Barranco Cosano and Radu Albot. This opened a path to a possible lucky-losers duel, with their aggression and pacing being the most important aspects being tested in this match.

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Sanchez Izquierdo then continued his fine form in the second set to start the third set, where he scored a fourth-shot forehand slice pass winner to secure his one-point lead before having a break point out of Gastao's forehand error, where the Portuguese qualifier's double fault secured him the early break to 1-0. The former then strengthened his position with a service game hold to 2-0 despite having to survive several deuces.

In the next game, the Spanish lucky loser almost broke in the next game thanks to his last 2 break points, which were scored by a backhand-down-the-line winner and his preceding defenses (including the lob after a forehand before outhitting Gastao's forehand), but Gastao still hung in there and put his name in the scoreboard after holding his serves to 2-1. Gastao almost got broken for the match in the eighth game due to a first-point forehand error, but he forced Sanchez Izquierdo to serve for the match (5-3), where he had to survive a break point due to a forehand error before saving it with an ace, eventually serving it out to seal the third set 6-4, thus confirming his maiden Challenger-level later-rounds appearance.

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However, the second set became its own question as Sanchez Izquierdo absorbed the pace from Gastao, thus shifting the moment in his favor thanks to his concise point construction after outhitting the latter's forehand side. This became evident in the fourth game, as Gastao trailed one point due to an unforced error, and had to face a break point due to Sanchez Izquierdo's preceding forehand to his forehand error. Eventually, the Spanish lucky loser broke to 3-1, subsequently consolidated his lead to 4-1.

Sanchez Izquierdo almost broke for the set as he outhit Gastao from his forehand side, but the latter still managed to save the said set point and held to 5-3. As a result, the former had to serve for the second set, which he successfully did despite conceding one point due to a double fault on set point to take the second set 6-3, thus bringing the match to the deciding set.

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Closing the action today (local time) in the Girona Challenger was an apparent second-qualification-round rematch between qualifier and last year's runner-up Gastao Elias, who previously defeated alternate Mark Lajal 7-5, 6-2 in the first round, and lucky loser Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo, who stunned eighth seed Pablo Llamas Ruiz 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a close encounter. The margin turned out to be thin between both players thanks to their groundstrokes and aggression, often needed proper executions for them to stand out in this match, which could be the reason behind Gastao's 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 victory just several days ago.

Gastao initially had an aggressive start by scoring a forehand down-the-line winner right at the first point of the match, followed by a cross-court forehand winner for his second point to pave the way before breaking early to 1-0. He almost created another chance several moments later by scoring a slice down-the-line winner 2 shots after his drop shot, surviving a forever deuce situation as Sanchez Izquierdo forced several deuces as a result of him going deep. In addition, Gastao also had a notable precise forehand winner that got Sanchez Izquierdo run over to set his two-point lead, somehow creating some of his break points before the Spanish lucky loser held his serves to 4-3, followed by his forehand winner that resulted in his one-point lead before Gastao held his serves to 5-3.

Somehow, Gastao had 3 set points stemmed from Sanchez Izquierdo's erratic service game in the next game, but the latter recovered his range until holding his serves to 5-4. As a result, he had to serve for the set for the first time due to the latter finding his depth in time, scoring a backhand down-the-line winner to create his earlier break point moments after Gastao misfired his forehand, before he eventually broke back to 5-5. However, another series of errors caused the Portuguese qualifier to break back to 6-5, which was peaked thanks to Gastao's slice to Sanchez Izquierdo's forehand error for the conversion. Consequently, Gastao earned his chance to serve for the set for the first set, which he did to take the first set 7-5.

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[Late Post] Girona Ch F: Ivan Gakhov def. Gastao Elias 5-7, 6-4 ret. Match Stats

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It was not the ending everybody wanted, but Gastao did not want to risk it further. His fight to stay in the match while turning the tide around was commendable this week. Somehow, Gakhov also found his moment in the match, while things were equal or some sort.

Gastao was in control throughout his service games. He was 3% ahead than Gakhov in terms of his first serves, but Gakhov scored 3 more aces. However, both Gastao and Gakhov won 58% of their points from their second serves, especially since Gakhov double-faulted thrice.

The control shifted back and forth in this match. Gastao had control in more parts of this match before his left thigh issue hit toward the end of the second set. Even though Gakhov had 100% break point conversion rate, Gakhov had it at the expense of Gastao's errors, which might have been the consequence of the error. On the other hand, Gastao went after Gakhov's forehands too before the issue, just with more shot-making capacity at times (including the working passes and volleys).

This marked Gakhov's first ever Challenger title. For someone like Gakhov, this match could prove he could also be a Challenger regular after the long rollercoaster ride (add his ITF records as well). In Gastao's case, this could pave a way for some bigger comebacks.

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Gakhov started his second set with trouble. He had to face another 2 set of break points because of his errors, but he still tried to bring Gastao off the balance from the baseline (hence the down-the-line failed attempt). Gakhov held that game to 2-2, at the end, but this could have posed trouble later on.

However, Gakhov twisted the moment until he drove Gastao further off the balance. This was a result of his continuous cross-court approach, which likely took a physical toll on Gastao (hence his left thigh issue prompted a mrdical timeout). As a result, Gakhov broke to 5-4 after Gastao's forehand errors while responding.

Gakhov used the opportunity well to serve for the set. He went after Gastao's forehands as well, which he pulled successfully. With the same reason, Gakhov took the second set 6-4. Unfortunately, Gastao could not risk it further to continue this close match, thus he retired from the match right before the third set began.

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Personal note: the writer was away during the entirety of the match. This was watched on replay.

The finalists in Girona Challenger this year had a unique trajectory. Gastao Elias sought his first Challenger title after a year, while this was Ivan Gakhov's first Challenger final ever. In the semifinals, Gakhov dominated Jesper de Jong, while Gastao pulled a comeback win to defeat Pedro Martinez. Here was how everything unfolded, chronicled here.

Gastao started well with his favorite backhand pass to close his point several shots after his slice to lead *1-2 0-30. By then, he had 2 break points, which were all saved by Gakhov. Gakhov ended up holding that service game to 2-2.

Somehow, Gakhov also had a similar pass, this time with a forehand in response to Gastao's volley as a response of the previous drop shot. 3 points later, Gakhov held to 5-5. However, it was Gastao's moment instead, who ended up breaking for the first set 7-5. Gastao was in control, especially at that game, aiming at Gakhov's forehand. It paid off: Gakhov erred his forehand a lot at that time, including one that went up in the air for the set point and another error for the conversion.

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Girona Ch SF: Ivan Gakhov [Alt] def. Jesper de Jong [Q] 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 Match Stats

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Jesper did not hold up to his level once Gakhov rediscovered his range. Gakhov was solid and stable throughout this match, even if he faced a stiff opposition in the second set. Here was how everything unfolded.

While both players won 73% of their points from their first serves (despite 68% of Jesper's first serves were in), Gakhov stood out in his second serves by winning 3% more points from there than Jesper in spite of double-faulting twice. Gakhov looked more clutch in saving 71% of the break points he faced.

The reason Gakhov faced 7 break points came from the way Jesper worked out his pace in the second set, which was not the case in the others. Add that with the tightening up in the third set, and that happened. However, Gakhov successfully returned 3% more points from Jesper's second serves, making it a little bit more vulnerable in this almost even match. His ability to produce points under pressure was also the reason why he converted 50% of his points, thanks to his controlled power when it worked.

In the finals, Gakhov will face the winner between Pedro Martinez and Gastao Elias, which just entered the third set as this was written. This could be a real test, knowing how both of them tried to rediscover their form in their own ways. Should be an interesting final there!

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Somehow, Gakhov found his range back in the third set. The erratic start from Jesper did not help, as Gakhov broke to 2-0 at that expense. By then, Jesper might have been outpaced (and outhit) altogether, since Gakhov managed to hold to 3-0.

Gakhov's forehand down-the-line winner to break again to 5-1 affirmed he was aggressively solid (and stable) throughout the set, leaving almost no room for Jesper to respond properly. The former had the opportunity to serve for the match for the first time, which was fumbled erratically because of a double fault down break point. As a result, Jesper broke back to 2-5, and held to 3-5.

The second opportunity to serve for the match came, and Gakhov took it well. He smashed his way to convert his break point to 6-3, eventually winning the match and advancing to his first Challenger final ever.

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...where Jesper shifted the moment in his favor instead. Gakhov notably erred his forehands for Jesper to break at 2-0. Jespee then looked more stable once he regained his serve, proceeded to hold to 3-0 afterward.

Several games later, Gakhov almost turned it around thanks to his shot-making, which included a forehand winner executed from afar several points after he had a working volley to start. However, Jesper came to save them all, ended up holding to 5-2. A game later, Jesper had the opportunity to serve for the set.

Despite several hiccups in between, including several errors from Jesper's part when serving it out, Jesper successfully served it out to take the second set 6-3. A working backhand slice was the cherry on top on Jesper's stability in this set.

However, all of these will be tested in the deciding set...