In the year of Dominic Thiem’s retirement, Austria’s young hopeful Joel Schwärzler has underlined his great talent with his first Challenger title. The 18-year-old, who has been number one in the junior world rankings since January, defeated Czech Kamil Majchrzak 6:3 6:3 in the final of the ATP Challenger in Skopje on Saturday and picked up the winner’s check in just his eighth tournament at this level.
25.05.2024 15.10
Online since today, 3.10pm
For Schwärzler, this means a huge jump in the ATP rankings. The Vorarlberg native, a protégé of ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer, has improved from position 664 into the top 400 and is expected to appear around position 387 in the world rankings on Monday.
Schwärzler, who was born on January 27, 2006 in Sandton near Johannesburg in South Africa to an Austrian father and a South African mother, and who speaks Afrikaans as well as German, English and was safe in his first final against the world number 351. After 81 minutes, he converted his fourth match point.
French Open junior title next goal
Schwärzler had already collected big points by reaching the quarter-finals of the Challengers in Tallahassee, Florida, and Mauthausen, but the 75 from North Macedonia topped everything he had achieved so far. The youngster, who trains in the southern part of the city, can also look forward to a check for 10,200 euros.
Schwärzler may soon have to adjust his goal; he wanted to be in the top 350 by the end of 2024. The left-hander has almost achieved that now. Incidentally, he will return to junior level the week after next because he wants to compete in the French Open – his clear goal there is to win the title.
