Czech charge rolls on: Svrcina joins the party with Challenger triumph

Dalibor Svrcina is adding fuel to Czechia’s standout season.

With countrymen Jakub Mensik and Tomas Machac having both won their biggest career titles already this year and inside the Top 25 of the PIF ATP Rankings, Svrcina is making his own statement on the ATP Challenger Tour.

The 22-year-old won his second Challenger title of the season Sunday when he triumphed at the Open Città della Disfida in Barletta, Italy. Svrcina, who defeated Ukrainian qualifier Vitaliy Sachko 7-5, 6-3 in the final, did not drop a set all week.

That winning smile 😄 👍

Dalibor Svrcina claims his second title of the season after getting past Sachko 7-5, 6-3 #ATPChallenger | @jsmeceskytenis pic.twitter.com/QY9KQ7uh6j

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) April 6, 2025

“It’s very nice to win this week because I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place. I was supposed to be at the Bucharest ATP tournament, but last week I did semi-finals in Napoli and it was raining, so we had to play on Sunday. I got a special exempt to play Barletta and it was a very nice week for me," Svrcina said.

“I have a brand sponsoring me who is based in Barletta so I had a lot of people coming, cheering for me from the team.”

Holding a 22-8 season record across all levels, Svrcina is at a career-high No. 132 in the PIF ATP Rankings following his Barletta triumph. The four-time Challenger champion also won in Pune, India last month.

Other Czechs who are riding the wave of momentum include Jiri Lehecka and Vit Kopriva. In January, Lehecka won his second tour-level title at the ATP 250 in Brisbane, his first tournament of the season. He also reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. Kopriva made his Top 100 debut Monday at No. 95 in the PIF ATP Rankings following a quarter-final run in Marrakech. Kopriva won the Naples Challenger before arriving at the clay ATP 250.

In other Challenger action, Lithuanian Vilius Gaubas is also at a career high following a title run. The 20-year-old Gaubas won the Open Menorca in Spain, where the seventh seed raced past Pol Martin Tiffon 6-0, 6-4 in the championship match.

^{Vilius Gaubas at the Menorca Challenger. Credit: Open Menorca}

At No. 149 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Gaubas has lifted two Challenger titles. He won in Cordenons last August and reached two additional finals in a breakthrough season.

Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler used the high-altitude conditions of Morelos, Mexico to his advantage, claiming his seventh Challenger title at the Morelos Open presentado por Metaxchange.

^{Marc-Andrea Huesler in Morelos, Mexico. Credit: Morelos Open presentado por Metaxchange}

The former World No. 47 produced his powerful lefty game to charge towards the title, overcoming Dmitry Popko 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the final. Popko was aiming for back-to-back trophies after winning in Morelia last week.

In Campinas, Brazil, top seed Tomas Barrios Vera held his ground to lift his fifth Challenger crown, all of which have come on clay. The 27-year-old downed Ecuador’s Alvaro Guillen Meza 6-4, 6-3 in the Campeonato Internacional de Tenis final.