Roland Garros: Five Challenger players to watch

Challenger

Five Challenger players to watch at Roland Garros

Nava, French lefty Atmane among list

Dove Men+Care Concepcion Emilio Nava has won five ATP Challenger Tour titles, all of which have come on clay. By ATP Staff

ATPTour.com highlights five players from the ATP Challenger Tour to watch during Roland Garros.

Emilio Nava

The American is in the French major as a wild card after winning the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge. Nava, 23, boasts a season-leading 30 Challenger-match wins, all of which have come on clay. He won three consecutive titles and built a 19-match winning streak that was halted by Chris Rodesch in the Tallahassee final, during which Nava was seeking a fourth straight trophy.

Nava is just the second American to win three clay-court Challenger trophies in the same season and, coincidentally, the first was his good friend Tristan Boyer just last year.

"I’m in a really good moment right now,” Nava told ATPTour.com last month. “I’m super happy of the work we’ve put in. We’ve just put the work in day in and day out and we’re just happy with the work.

“I think on paper, it definitely is [the best I've ever played]. I’m moving well. Mentally, I think I’m at a place where I’m just calm with my tennis and where I’m at.”

Terence Atmane

A potential match with top seed Jannik Sinner looms in the second round, but the French lefty will be focussed on his first task. There is bound to be a big crowd for Atmane’s opening-round clash with countryman and Tour veteran Richard Gasquet, who is playing his final event.

Atmane won two Challenger hard-court titles last month and will look to bring that momentum in Paris as he seeks his first major main-draw victory. The 23-year-old is coached by Guillaume Peyre, who has previously worked with Gasquet.

Jaime Faria

Portugal's Faria reached his maiden tour-level quarter-final at the clay ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro. The following week, the 21-year-old was competing in another ATP quarter-final in Santiago. Faria showed some of his best tennis across both weeks, but then missed two months due to injury.

The No. 115 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Faria won two clay-court Challengers last season (Oeiras, Curitiba), in addition to a runner-up finish in Valencia. He advanced through qualifying at this year's Australian Open, which marked his major main-draw debut. Faria reached the second round and took a set off of record 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.

Ethan Quinn

Two years ago this week, the American won the NCAA singles championship competing for the University of Georgia. Now at a career-high No. 106 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Quinn is playing his second major tournament and first away from home soil. He held his nerve in the final round of qualifying, escaping Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante in a third-set tie-break to book his place in the main draw.

At a career-high No. 106 in the PIF ATP Rankings, the 21-year-old has faced stiff competition throughout the clay-court swing, having met Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP 500 in Barcelona and #NextGenATP star Jakub Mensik in Madrid. Quinn faces another fan favourite, Grigor Dimitrov, at Roland Garros.

Francesco Passaro

Following a second-round appearance at the Australian Open as a lucky loser, Passaro made his Top 100 debut in the PIF ATP Rankings. The Italian has played just five events since Melbourne, including a quarter-final run at the Challenger 175 event in Turin, where he was defending the title.

Passaro is making his Roland Garros debut. He will look to relive his memories from last year’s clay-court season, during which he made the third-round in Rome as a qualifier and the following week he won the Turin Challenger, becoming the first player since 2009 to oust five Top 100 players en route to a title at that level.

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