Americans Holt, Kovacevic win Challenger titles

More than 10,000 kilometres apart, Americans Brandon Holt and Aleksandar Kovacevic collected trophies Sunday on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Holt, the son of former WTA World No. 1 Tracy Austin, won his maiden Challenger title at the Bangkok Open 3 while Kovacevic was crowned champion at the Oeiras Indoor 2 in Portugal.

Holt and Kovacevic travelled to their respective events following second-round appearances in Australian Open qualifying. They each dropped just one set en route to their title runs.

The 26-year-old Holt defeated top-seeded Czech Vit Kopriva 6-3, 6-2 in the championship match. Following his triumph, the California native is up 34 spots to No. 176 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

“This is the first Challenger I’ve won. I made a final last year, so off to a good start in 2025,” Holt said.

“It was pretty warm so I think fitness was big. I think I did a good job managing the heat, staying fit and staying in long rallies. We had a lot of long rallies, especially in the final. I think I won the majority of those points and in the end, that’s everything. You win by a small margin in a lot of these matches and fortunately I was able to come out with a win every single time this tournament.”

In Oeiras, top seed Kovacevic downed Hungarian Zsombor Piros 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final to claim his fifth Challenger title.

Trophy time in Oeiras 👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/dCRcLPWnnC

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) January 19, 2025

“I’m very happy,” said Kovacevic, No. 104 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. “I think the focus has been on getting my tennis level up. When I first broke the Top 100, my focus was getting my level high and then the results kind of came with that. That’s what I’m trying to do again because maybe I went away from that a little this past year.”

Kovacevic, 26, was defending points from his second-round appearance at last year’s Australian Open, during which the American earned his first major main-draw win.

Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas won the AAT Challenger Santander Tigre in Argentina, where the fourth seed ousted Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-4, 6-4 in the title match, which was moved to Monday due to rain. The 29-year-old Varillas is a seven-time ATP Challenger Tour champion.

^{Juan Pablo Varillas in action at the AAT Challenger Santander Tigre. Credit: Omar Erre}