'Happy' Nishikori wins Helsinki Challenger title

Kei Nishikori returned to the winner's circle on Sunday.

The former No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings claimed his first title of the season when he won the ATP Challenger Tour event in Helsinki. He defeated Luca Nardi 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to triumph at the HPP Open.

“It’s great," Nishikori said. "It’s been a long time since I won a title. This was a really tough week, tough final. Luca played really good in the final. I almost lost my chance, but I was able to play solid in the end."

“It was not easy. Semi-final was tough, played two and a half hours and recovered for today and played another three sets. Not easy, but this is my last tournament of the year so I just tried to give 100 per cent for this match today and I think I did very well."

Happy! pic.twitter.com/4BHGANdRFL

— Kei Nishikori (@keinishikori) November 10, 2024

Nishikori has won 25 of his past 29 matches on the ATP Challenger Tour dating back to the Dallas Challenger in 2018.

The 34-year-old was World No. 576 in August, but has quickly climbed towards the verge of the Top 100. The 12-time ATP Tour titlist reached the quarter-finals at the Canadian ATP Masters 1000 event in August and the quarter-finals in Tokyo.

“I’m close to the Top 100 now, so next goal is Top 50 and just keep winning," Nishikori said when asked about his 2025 goals.

Knoxville, Tennessee
In other action, Christopher Eubanks collected his fourth title at that level at the Knoxville Challenger, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary. Eubanks, who also won the Knoxville trophy in 2021, downed #NextGenATP 18-year-old Learner Tien 7-5, 7-6(9) in the final.

The 28-year-old needed a deciding-set tie-break in both his quarter-final and semi-final matches.

“I try not to put whether or not it is a successful week based on the results. I think that post US Open, I’ve really started to put some good weeks of training and tinkering with my game a little bit. Not focusing so much on the winning and losing, but just enjoying the process of bettering my game,” Eubanks told commentator Mike Cation.

“We’ve really tried to put in a lot of really good work the past three, four weeks of making some adjustments in my game. That’s been my focus and not so much about winning. Winning obviously helps and it shows that I’m clearly right on the track.”

🏆 2021
🏆 2024@chris_eubanks96 is the champion in Knoxville for a second time in his career!#ATPChallenger | @usta pic.twitter.com/R9O3zwWd8B

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) November 10, 2024

Matsuyama, Japan
Eubanks’ fellow American Nicolas Moreno De Alboran also triumphed at the Unicharm Trophy Ehime. The 27-year-old is at a career-high No. 110 in the PIF ATP Rankings following his final 7-6(4), 6-2 victory against Alex Bolt.

Moreno de Alboran, a three-time ATP Challenger Tour champion, leads the USTA’s wild card challenge for direct entry into the Australian Open with one week remaining in the race.

^{Nicolas Moreno De Alboran in action at the Matsuyama Challenger. Credit: Yoshiharu Yokoyama}

Lima, Peru
Czech Vit Kopriva won the Directv Open Lima, where he beat Elmer Moller 6-3, 7-6(3) in the championship match to lift his fifth Challenger trophy. Kopriva, 27, played three-setters in four of his five matches. The Lima title propelled Kopriva to World No. 131.

Leaving Lima with the hardware 🏆

Vit Kopriva claims his second title of the year, scoring a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Moller#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/LejDwCJi1j

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) November 10, 2024