Mayot into another final: he takes on Droguet in Saint-Tropez

Harold Mayot is playing his second Challenger final in a week. The Frenchman, who lost the Rennes final last Sunday, has also reached the final of the St. Tropez Challenger, where he will face fellow Frenchman Titouan Droguet.

For Mayot, 24, it is also the day of a new personal ranking record: today, 27 September, he climbed to number 193 in the ATP rankings with 295 points, his career high.

Droguet, 25, also hit his own career high today: he sits at number 80 with 740 points, the highest position of his career.

The Saint-Tropez tournament, a Challenger 125 on hard courts, began on 21 September and has already reached the semifinal stage. The draw featured 31 players from 19 nations, with France the best-represented country with seven players in the field; 29 matches have been played, with 19 tiebreaks and two retirements.

Mayot's road to the final was not easy. In the third round he beat Justin Boulais 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2), then in the round of 16 he got past Edas Butvilas 6-4, 6-3. In the quarterfinals he came from behind to beat Jesper De Jong 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, before completing the run with a semifinal win over American Murphy Cassone, who retired at 5-7, 6-2, 4-2.

Droguet also had to fight hard. In the third round he beat Karl Poling in a deciding tiebreak, 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(4). In the round of 16 he came back to beat Borna Gojo 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarterfinals he eliminated Mark Lajal 6-4, 7-6(1), and in the semifinal he got past Dino Prizmic 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

The tournament's other retirement had come in the third round, when Ugo Blanchet closed out his match against Colombia's Nicolas Mejia at 4-1.

The previous week, in Rennes, Mayot and Droguet had both lost to the same opponent: Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg. Mayot lost the final 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, while Droguet was eliminated in the semifinal 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-3.

Gueymard Wayenburg, another Frenchman, born in 2003, thus claimed the title in front of a home crowd: the Rennes Challenger, an indoor Challenger 100, saw 11 of the 25 entrants come from France.

Gueymard Wayenburg was born on 1 August 2003: he is 23, like Mayot, while Droguet, born on 15 June 2001, is 25. Three careers that have crossed paths repeatedly over these two weeks on French courts, in an autumn that has seen France as the best-represented nation at both Rennes and Saint-Tropez.

The Rennes title propelled Gueymard Wayenburg to number 217 in the rankings, his career high, reached on 21 September: a huge jump compared with the previous weeks, even though today's rankings place him at number 223 with 255 points.

Mayot's run to the Rennes final had gone through a third-round win over Clement Tabur 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-4, then a quarterfinal win over Clement Chidekh 6-4, 6-4 and a semifinal win over Tristan Schoolkate 6-3, 6-3.

Droguet, for his part, had eliminated Michele Ribecai 7-6(1), 6-4 in the third round at Rennes, Daniel Rincon 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 16 and Borna Gojo 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, before falling in the semifinal to Gueymard Wayenburg himself.

Both Mayot and Droguet live mainly on the Challenger circuit: their résumés carry only a handful of appearances in the tour's main tournaments. Mayot closed the 2025 season at ATP level with a 1-4 record, 20 percent; Droguet, that same year, fared better with 2 wins and a single loss, 67 percent, after going 0-1 in 2024 and 1-1 in 2023.

The Saint-Tropez tournament has a long tradition on the late-summer French Challenger calendar: in 2025 the title went to Tunisia's Moez Echargui, while at Rennes, a year ago, Hugo Gaston won the final against former world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, 6-4, 6-4.

At stake in Saint-Tropez for the champion are 125 ATP points, 75 for the beaten finalist, 45 for the eliminated semifinalists, 25 for the quarterfinalists and 13 for those stopped in the round of 16: figures that, added to what they have already banked in recent weeks, explain the new career-high rankings both finalists reached today.

There is no previous meeting on record between Mayot and Droguet in the tournaments tracked by the site: the Saint-Tropez final will therefore be their first meeting in a significant tournament.

For Mayot, it is a chance to turn into a title a run of results that has brought him two consecutive Challenger finals, after a season so far that has been difficult on the main tour.

For Droguet, coming off the Rennes defeat, it is a chance to close out a month that has already brought him his career-high ranking with a trophy, just as second-tier French men's tennis keeps producing new names on the Challenger circuit.

The Saint-Tropez final is just one round away for both men, with the semifinals played today: whoever wins will close out an intense week by taking another step forward in the rankings, ahead of the season's final commitments on the Challenger tour.