Raphaël Collignon Advances to Challenger Semifinals in Lugano

LUGANO, Switzerland — Raphaël Collignon, the 23-year-old tennis player from Liège, secured his spot in the semifinals of the Challenger 75 tournament in Lugano on Friday. The event features a prize pool of €91,250 and is played on hard court.

Collignon, currently ranked 98th in the world, defeated Canadian Liam Draxl, the 23-year-old eighth seed ranked 176th by the ATP, in the quarterfinals. The match concluded in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, after 1 hour and 46 minutes of play.

This victory marks Collignon’s eighth consecutive win on the Challenger circuit, allowing him to set up a semifinal clash against either 20-year-old French player Luca Van Assche (seeded third, ATP 154) or American Murphy Cassone (ATP 247), who is 22 years old and emerged through the qualifiers.

Collignon recently won the Challenger 125 in Pau, which helped him enter the top 100 rankings. His fellow Belgian, Alexander Blockx, was eliminated in the second round of the tournament in Pau by Cassone and faced further defeat in Lugano. The 19-year-old Blockx, ranked 153rd, was ousted by Croatia’s 19-year-old Dino Prizmic (ATP 394) on Thursday.

Prizmic notably took a set off of Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open last year, although he ultimately lost to the Serbian star in the first round in Melbourne.

In other results, Greet Minnen, ranked No. 2 in Belgium, expressed satisfaction after advancing to her second WTA semifinal, following a previous loss to China’s Xiyu Wang at the WTA 250 in Guangzhou in September 2023. “I believe I delivered a very high-level match,” Minnen, 27, said. “The first set was really solid from start to finish. I was very focused and made almost no mistakes. In the second set, my opponent raised her game and became more aggressive, but I fought until the end.”

Minnen will compete against McCartney Kessler, who recently captured her second WTA title in Hobart in January and emerged victoriously against American Coco Gauff last week in Dubai. With a current record of 11 wins and 5 losses this year, Kessler has proven her ability to win titles.

<p“Kessler is in great form lately. She has already demonstrated that she can win titles. This will certainly be a great match and a challenging test for me," Minnen added, noting her excitement about the match. “The atmosphere in Austin is fantastic. The supporters are enthusiastic and very respectful; they appreciate beautiful points, regardless of who hits them.”