Chasteau, Lazarte earn first ITF 1 titles as Miki shines at Swiss Open
Just a week after reaching her first Grand Slam doubles final at The Championships, Wimbledon, Ksenia Chasteau has achieved another career breakthrough after lifting the women’s singles title at the Swiss Open Geneva, where Takuya Miki and Gonzalo Enrique Lazarte were also crowned champions in the men’s singles and quad singles.
Chasteau moved up three places to a new career-high of No. 8 in women’s singles on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Rankings after making the quarter-finals on her debut at the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, but she has now eclipsed that after winning her first ITF 1 singles title in Geneva to reach world No.6.
Still ranked No. 21 at the start of 2025 and No. 18 in mid-February, third seed Chasteau beat fellow French players Charlotte Fairbank and Pauline Deroulede and Swiss local Nalani Buob on her way to the final against Jinte Bos of the Netherlands, a player with whom she had shared honours in their previous two matches.
Bos had already beaten top seed and defending champion Angelica Bernal in one of three three-set matches on her way to the final as she attempted to follow up her maiden ITF 1 title at last year’s Sardinia Open, and she came from a set and 4-3 down to force another decider in Geneva before losing a 3-1 third set lead as Chasteau wrapped up a 6-2 6-7(3) 7-5 victory after two hours and 15 minutes.
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The women’s singles was one of two Swiss Open finals that Bos contested this year after also partnering Bernal to the women’s doubles final, before the second seeds narrowly lost out to top seeds Manami Tanaka and Zhu Zhenzhen 1-6 6-2 (10-6).
However, like Chasteau, Bos now has the satisfaction of moving up to a new career-high singles ranking for the second successive week. And, most importantly, Bos’s new ranking at No. 13 puts in her line for direct acceptance for the US Open, having made her debut on the Grand Slam stage in doubles only in recent weeks as an alternate at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
With women’s finalists Chasteau and Bos having played plenty of three-set matches between them in Geneva, Lazarte’s progress to his first ITF 1 Series quad singles title was, on paper, somewhat smoother.
With local Swiss hope Giuliano Carnovali bowing out in three sets after losing successive tie-breaks to Germany’s Marcus Laudan and second seed Donald Ramphadi also making an early exit against the USA’s Andrew Bogdanov, Lazarte made the most of a bye into the quarter-finals before the 20-year-old third seed beat Australia’s Benjamin Wenzel 6-4 6-4 and Bogdanov 6-4 6-3.
Top seed Rob Shaw made a good start to his Swiss Open title defence after defeating Laudan 6-1 6-3, but the Canadian’s task became more difficult in the semi-finals as he held of fourth seed Jin Woodman 6-4 1-6 6-4.
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The extent of Shaw’s difficulties subsequently became clearer as a shoulder injury prevented him from continuing his title defence and Lazarte was handed a walkover in the final. It was not the way the young Argentinian would have wanted to win his first ITF 1 title, but the points he accrued have now seen him attain a top 10 quad singles ranking for the first time as he moves move up five places to No. 8.Wenzel and Woodman claimed the quad doubles title after defeating Shaw and fellow Canadian Shawn Courchesne 4-6 6-1 (10-3) after a deciding championship tie-break.
For men’s singles champion Miki there was no first ITF 1 singles title, but the emotion he let out after securing match point betrayed that it must have felt that way as his second ITF 1 title came some 12 years after his first.
Miki, who reached a career-high singles ranking as recently as January 2023, had won 31 singles titles at ITF 2 and ITF 3 level since his maiden ITF 1 title at the Korea Open in June 2023.
Twelve months ago in Geneva Miki’s Swiss Open challenge had ended in a semi-final loss to top seed and eventual champion Martin de la Puente. However, this time De la Puente went out in the quarter-finals after Brazil’s Daniel Rodrigues beat the Spaniard for the first time in six years.
A second successive victory over a top 10-ranked opponent saw seventh seed Rodrigues defeat third seed Casey Ratzlaff 6-4 2-6 6-0 in the semi-finals, but Rodrigues was unable to make it back-to-back career wins over Miki as they met for the first time since their 2024 Barcelona Open second round contest, with the Japanese fourth seed prevailing 6-3 6-3 at the end of a final completed indoors due to wet weather.
However, Rodrigues did leave Geneva with the men’s doubles title after partnering Frederic Cattaneo to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Ratzlaff and Kouhei Suzuki.
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