Top seed Jeremy Chardy suffered a shock defeat in the Brest Challenger as Belgian Yannik Reuter scored his career-high win, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau also suffered a surprise exit as he was beaten by lucky loser Norbert Gombos.
Chardy had shown little indication of poor form this week, reaching the semi-finals without the loss of a set. That record quickly dissipated as Reuter secured the only break of the opening set, saving three against his own serve. Reuter earned success against the Chardy second serve throughout the match, winning more than half of those points in all three sets. The top seed dug deep however in the second set and breaking late in a set characterised by swings in momentum, with five breaks of serve.
Reuter came back in the third though, battening down, dropping just two points on first serve in the decider. Chardy’s ability to win points behind his second serve fell to less than 25% as Reuter began to dominate. The Belgian broke twice to earn his first berth in a Challenger final.
His opponent will be the lucky loser Norbert Gombos who also ousted a home player in the form of Julien Benneteau. The match followed a similar curve to the Reuter match, as the favourite Benneteau dropped the first set before recovering in the second, only for Gombos to eventually win through 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
The final match-up therefore features two unlikely candidates for the title. Reuter had lost in the first round of his last three events whilst Gombos had seen his ranking drop to outside the Top 300 (now at no.222). Reuter has never won a Challenger title, though Gombos has two titles both last year (def. Paire, def. Montanes). It represents Gombos’ seventh Challenger final in all.