met an old enemy again, fell behind again, and won the championship with one blow and returned to the top 100 in the world rankings

Many people are familiar with Croatia's Čurić, who won his first career tour win in 2014 and his first career Grand Slam victory that year. It is worth mentioning that he also defeated Spanish god Rafael Nadal that year, and after successfully moving himself up the world rankings by several hundred, Čurić became the rookie of the year.

In the years since, Čurić has been improving. He has beaten world number one, Great Britain's Murray and Swiss king Roger Federer, and has a good record on tour and at Grand Slam events. Unfortunately, in 2021, due to injury, Čurić was unable to set foot on the tennis court for a long time. In 2022, his world ranking even dropped to outside the top 150. At the time, many fans doubted that the handsome Croatian guy would become the next injured Zhongyong.

However, in the face of the dilemma, Čurić did not give up. In August 2022, he won his first career Masters title in Cincinnati with a five-game winning streak and returned to the top 30 in the world rankings. With such a performance, Čurić was the best comeback player of the year. However, even though he reached the final of the tour, he never won the title again. He didn't make it to his second week at a Grand Slam tournament either. Last season, Čurić even lost to China's Sun Fajing in the first set of the Shanghai Masters qualifiers.

In such a state, Čurić has always hovered on the edge of the TOP100. Prior to last week, with a 15-game winning streak, he had won three Challenger tournaments in a row. Falling out and killing back has become the norm for Churich. Last week he traveled to the Provence Challenge in France, home to lavender, and the beautiful scenery attracts visitors from all over the world. Coming to this sea of purple and looking at the beautiful scenery, Čurić, who had just been eliminated in the first round of the Madrid Masters, was in a particularly good mood.

In the first round, facing France's Ebel, Čurić did his best and fought in three sets to defeat his opponent. In the second round, facing Lindknecht, who is also Frenchman, Čurić defeated his opponent in straight sets and reached the quarterfinals of the Challenger for the fourth time in the 2025 season. It should be noted that in the first three times, he won the championship.

Čurić's opponent in the quarter-finals was Argentina's Navone. This player has reached the final of the tour twice, and he has a certain amount of quality. In the first set, Čurić won with difficulty when he was forced to score seven in the set by his opponent; In the second set, already familiar with the opponent's tactics, he only allowed Navone to win four games. After the victory, Čurić reached the semi-finals.

However, in the semi-finals, Peruvian Buse, who had reached the final of the Challenger tournament, took the first set to win. It was also the first time in the Provence Challenge that Čurić fell behind. Fortunately, in the following games, he found his form in time, won two sets in a row, reversed and defeated his opponent, and reached the final.

Churic's opponent in the final was three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka. Back in 2016, the two faced each other in the final of the tour. At that time, Wawrinka defeated his opponent in straight sets to win the title, and Čurić, who reached the final of his first career tour, had to leave silently with tears in his eyes. Not long ago, Čurić also lost to his opponent in the Napoli Challenger tournament, and the winning streak came to a halt of 16 games.

In this encounter, Wawrinka took the next set through a tie-break, and once saw the dawn of winning the championship. However, Čurić was reluctant to rest on his laurels, scoring back-to-back points in the second set to allow his opponent to win just three games, and they returned to the same running line to reach the deciding set. In the deciding set, the two battled fiercely for points and entered the tie-break again. This time, Čurić had the last laugh as he came back from behind to win his fourth Challenger title of the 2025 season. At the same time, it is also the highest-ranking championship won in the 2025 season.

With this title, Čurić's instant world ranking reached 85th. Next, he will compete in the Turin Challenger. So, will Čurić be able to continue his impressive performances? Let's wait and see. That's it for today, and it will continue tomorrow.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Yixin Jushi)