Francesco Passaro just keeps going. The 25-year-old Italian has won the Maia Challenger 100 in Portugal, beating Hungary's Zsombor Piros 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the final. It is his second title in two weeks, following Palermo: two trophies and nine wins in his last ten matches.
The ranking tells the story best. In the ATP list of 19 October Passaro is No. 146, the best position of his career: he was No. 229 and has gained 83 places. With the Lisbon Challenger under way, the live ranking has him at No. 147 with 395 points, but the picture is the same: a player on the rise.
The final against Piros followed the script Passaro seems to favour lately. The Hungarian took the first set 6-4 and set the match on his own terms. Then the Italian changed gear: 6-3 in the second set and 6-2 in the third, a run that decided the match and the title.
The road to the title in Maia was no stroll. In his first match Passaro beat Tiago Torres 6-3 6-0, then got past Nikolas Sanchez-Izquierdo 7-6(2) 7-6(6), two tie-breaks played with a cool head. In the quarter-finals he beat Marco Trungelliti 2-6 7-5 7-6(5), recovering from a lopsided first set and winning the decider only in a tie-break.
In the semi-final he met Croatia's Matej Dodig, now No. 138 after a jump of 36 places (he was No. 174). Passaro won 5-7 6-1 6-4, once again after dropping the first set. The head-to-head with Dodig now stands at 2-1 for the Italian: he also won in the third round of the 2025 Umag ATP 250, 4-6 6-1 6-2, while at Roanne, also in 2025, the Croatian prevailed 6-3 6-4.
The event was a Challenger 100 that began on 12 October, with 27 players from 16 countries in the draw. Spain was the best represented with six players; Italy had four and took the title. In all, 26 matches were played, with seven tie-breaks and ten matches going to a deciding set. Elmer Moller won it in 2025.
Maia also tastes like revenge for Passaro. In 2024 he reached the final of the same tournament but lost to Damir Dzumhur 6-3 6-4. Two years later the script has changed, and the title is worth 100 ATP points: the maximum for the category.
Against Piros the head-to-head is now 2-0. The first meeting was in 2024, in the third round of the Naples Challenger 125, won by Passaro 4-6 6-4 7-5: another comeback, no surprise there. Piros, 27, is No. 103 with 590 points, so this is a significant win against an opponent ranked above him.
The Maia success follows the one in Palermo, a Challenger 50 that began on 5 October, with 25 players from nine countries and no fewer than eleven Italians in the draw. Passaro beat Oriol Roca Batalla 6-1 7-6(4), Carlo Alberto Caniato 4-6 6-3 6-4 and Enrico Dalla Valle 6-3 6-4, then Jonas Forejtek in the final 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(4), after three sets and two tie-breaks. The title brought him 50 points.
Forejtek is now No. 299 and the head-to-head with Passaro is 1-0 in the Italian's favour. In the Palermo final Passaro won the first set 6-3, lost the second in a tie-break and closed out the third in another tie-break: a match of nerves, like the one in Maia.
Counting the two weeks, the picture is clear: nine wins in nine matches played, and in four of them Passaro lost the first set. Against Caniato in Palermo, against Trungelliti, Dodig and Piros in Maia. Five of the nine matches went to a third set. A statistic that says a lot about the mental and physical resilience he has shown.
To see how much his season has changed, just look back. Before this run, in Genoa, at a Challenger 125, he went out in the round of 16 against Juan Pablo Varillas 7-5 6-1. At the US Open he collected 10 points with a first-round result. In 2025, at the main-tour events followed by the site, his record was five wins and eight losses, with no titles; from 2022 to 2025 the count is 8 wins and 16 losses, with 6-10 on clay.
Today, instead, his last 10 matches read nine wins and one loss, and over the last 30 the balance is 18 wins to 12, a +6 that tells of a change of trend. The two titles brought him 150 points: 100 in Maia and 50 in Palermo.
The group in which Passaro is fighting is crowded. In the live ranking, No. 145 Clement Chidekh has 396 points, No. 146 Ilia Simakin 395, Passaro 395, No. 148 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 385 and No. 149 Pavel Kotov 384: twelve points separate the fifth from the first. In this zone, every match is worth places.
Meanwhile there is another tournament to play. In Lisbon, again a Challenger 100 that began on 19 October, Passaro faces Andrea Pellegrino in the round of 16 on Thursday 22 October at 11:00. In the live ranking, a win would take him to 405 points; the title would take him to 485. In 2025 the event was won by Vilius Gaubas, who beat Henrique Rocha in the final 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4.
For Passaro, it seems, the comeback has become a lifestyle. Lisbon will show whether the streak can continue and whether this week's No. 146 becomes a stable base to build on.
Test yourself
3 questions on what you have just read.
1. Who did Passaro beat in the final of the Maia Challenger?
2. What was the score of the Palermo final against Forejtek?
3. Who does Passaro face in the round of 16 of the Lisbon Challenger?