Challenger Events
Romiglio & Bautista Claim May PSA Challenger Tour Players of the Month Awards
Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio and Colombia’s Lucia Bautista have been named as the PSA Challenger Tour Players of the Month for May after both picking up titles within the month.
20-year-old Bautista was competing in just her third PSA event at the start of May at the Latina Tour de las Americas-Regatas Resistencia Open 1 Edition 2023 Challenger 10 event. From an unseeded position, Bautista impressively took out the No.4, 5 and 2 seeds before beating third seeded Ukrainian Alina Bushma in five games to lift her first PSA Tour title.
Bautista then featured in two more events in the Latina Tour de las Americas series, firstly at the PAC Open de Squash where she again caused upsets to set up a repeat final with Alina Bushma, but the Ukrainian claimed the title this time around.
Attention then turned to Paraguay Open in Bautista’s last event of the month, she again reached the final from an unseeded position, beating top seeded Tessa ter sluis in the quarter finals before coming back from 2-1 down against Sohaila Ismail to set up an all-Colombia final against Laura Tovar, whom she had beaten twice in successive tournaments.
Tovar got her revenge however and claimed the title, winning in three games but that takes nothing away from a quite incredible run for 20-year-old Bautista.
World No.55 Leandro Romiglio also played his May events in South America (aside from the PSA World Championships) as he also captured titles in the Tour de las Americas series.
Romiglio was back in Argentina for the first event, the Regatas Resistencia Open XI Edition 2023. The Argentine impressively didn’t drop a single game on route to the title. Overcoming Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi in a straight-game final.
Romiglio then moved onto the Paraguay Open, where he had things slightly tougher as he defeated European pair Edwin Clain and then Yannick Wilhelmi again, both in four games. The Argentina No.1 would face compatriot Jeremias Azaña for the title and claimed the win in emphatic fashion, winning 11-4, 11-7, 11-4 to claim back-to-back titles and his 11th in his career.
