Jinan: Bellucci beats Landaluce to win Challenger 125

Mattia Bellucci ends his Chinese trip with a title. In the final of the 2026 Jinan Challenger, a hard-court Challenger 125, the Italian beat Spain's Martin Landaluce 6-2 4-6 6-3 and collected 125 ATP points. The win erases the disappointment of Shanghai and relaunches his autumn.

The tournament began on 12 October with 31 players in the draw from 17 nations. Italy had just one, and he took the title. Spain also had a single representative and he stopped at the last step: a two-man final between players who had already met this summer.

Bellucci's 2026 had been a seesaw so far. Third round at Eastbourne, second round at Montreal, third round at Cincinnati (50 points), second round at the US Open (another 50), third round at Winston-Salem and Hangzhou. Solid results, but without the stroke that changes a season. Then came the turning point in the Asian Challengers.

The first sign came at Jingshan, a Challenger 100. Bellucci beat Alexandre Muller 6-0 6-3, Adam Walton 7-5 6-2 and Yanki Erel 6-4 6-4, then lost the final to Lloyd Harris 1-6 6-3 7-6(4): he took the first set, then his opponent came back all the way to the deciding tie-break. The reward was still 60 points.

The following week brought the Shanghai Masters 1000, and for Bellucci it ended at once: in the first round he lost 6-4 3-6 7-6(4) to China's Yi Zhou, once again in three sets and once again with a bitter tie-break. No points, but a clear lesson: the form was there, what was missing was the centimetre in the big moments.

In Jinan that centimetre arrived. Bellucci started with a clean 6-2 6-1 win over Elias Ymer, then beat Luka Pavlovic 6-4 6-4 in the round of 16 and Alexander Shevchenko by the same score in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final he met Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki and won 6-2 7-6(2). He dropped just one set all week, and in the final at that.

Landaluce had a more winding road. He beat Ilia Simakin 6-3 6-3 and Jie Cui 6-4 7-5, then came back against Keegan Smith 3-6 6-2 6-3 in the quarter-finals and beat Liam Draxl in the semi-final, 7-6(0) 6-3, with a tie-break won without conceding a point. It was the right road to the title, but on the last step he found Bellucci.

The final was played in three acts. In the first set the Italian took control and closed it 6-2. In the second Landaluce answered and levelled at 6-4. In the third Bellucci found his rhythm and clarity again and closed 6-3, turning the match into a question of nerves more than strokes.

Their latest meeting had already favoured the Italian. At Winston-Salem, in the second round of this year's 250, Bellucci won 6-4 6-7(3) 6-1. With Jinan the head-to-head goes to 2-0, with two wins in three sets and a final that weighs far more than a second round.

Two different profiles. Bellucci was born on 1 June 2001, is 25 and has a career-high ranking of No. 67, reached on 3 July 2026. Landaluce was born on 8 January 2006, is 20 and his peak is No. 60, also on 3 July. This year the Spaniard reached the round of 16 at Cincinnati, where he eliminated Thiago Agustin Tirante 7-6(5) 7-6(4) and earned 100 points, and lost in the first round of the US Open to Jacob Fearnley in five sets, 4-6 6-2 4-6 7-5 6-3.

In the rankings, the title is worth the maximum. A Challenger 125 awards 125 points to the champion, 75 to the finalist, 45 to the semi-finalists, 25 to the quarter-finalists. Bellucci took 125 and Landaluce 75, which leaves him on 822 points. For the Italian, the site's player page shows 812 points, 13 places gained since 27 July. The signal in our brief, a jump of 18 places from No. 86 to No. 68, describes the same movement from another angle.

The area he moves in is crowded, and every point counts. Ahead are Facundo Diaz Acosta on 815 points and Landaluce on 822, behind are Titouan Droguet on 801 and James Duckworth on 799. Between Landaluce and Duckworth there are just 23 points: one good week can move a player up five places, one bad week loses them just as fast.

The recent record says the trend is right. In his last ten matches Bellucci has won eight and lost two. In 2025, on the main tour, he finished with 11 wins and 17 losses; in the Slams, Masters 1000, ATP 500 and 250 events followed by the site he played 42 matches between 2023 and 2025, winning 16, with no titles or finals.

It must be said: Jinan is a Challenger, not a main-tour event, and the level is lower. But titles are won by beating the opponents in front of you, and in seven days Bellucci beat five of them, dropping a single set.

The tournament has a history of its own. The 2025 edition went to Arthur Cazaux, who beat Mackenzie Mcdonald 6-3 6-2 in the final. Those 125 points drop from the rankings with the 2026 edition, and Bellucci was not defending them: his gain is entirely net. The 2026 numbers read 30 matches, 6 tie-breaks, 8 matches going to a deciding set, two sets ending 6-0 and three retirements.

Among the retirements, Bernard Tomic at 2-2 against Dane Sweeny and Marat Sharipov against Ilya Ivashka. The draw also had a big name, Marin Cilic, who beat Adam Walton 6-3 3-6 6-1 and then lost to Yosuke Watanuki. The longest match was Keegan Smith vs Stefanos Sakellaridis, 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3, 31 games in all.

On the eve of the final, the Spanish press had already framed the clash: Puntodebreak wrote that Landaluce, having beaten Draxl in the semi-final, "se jugará el título frente a Mattia Bellucci" (will play for the title against Mattia Bellucci). In the end the title went to the Italian.

What happens now? With 812 points and a ranking on the move, every end-of-season tournament becomes a chance to gain more places. The natural goal is to get back close to his career high of No. 67, and perhaps beat it: the distance from his peak is now just a handful of places.

Meanwhile the Italian can enjoy the trophy and the confidence it brings. After the lost final at Jingshan and the defeat at Shanghai, Jinan is the best answer: three sets, one title, 125 points. For Landaluce there remain a final and 75 points, but also time ahead. For Bellucci, the point now is not to stop.