Gauzy's Ljubljana run ends as Calderano edges him in semifinal thriller

Simon Gauzy left Ljubljana with a semifinal loss, but the bigger story was how long he kept climbing before Hugo Calderano finally stopped him. At WTT Star Contender Ljubljana 2026 Presented by I Feel Slovenia, the Frenchman turned a week at Hala Tivoli into evidence that his game is still trending toward the sport’s top tier, even if Calderano, the No. 3 seed, showed where the next step still is.

The event ran from June 16 to June 21, offered USD 300,000 in prize money and brought a stacked men’s singles draw led by Felix Lebrun, Lin Shidong and Calderano. Gauzy entered as the No. 12 seed and a wildcard, listed at world No. 20 with 1,685 ranking points. In a draw full of French names, including Felix Lebrun, Alexis Lebrun, Thibault Poret and Lilian Bardet, Gauzy became the last French singles player standing in Ljubljana, which gave every round he survived extra weight.

His quarterfinal and round-of-16 wins were not polished blowouts. They were survival acts. Gauzy opened by outlasting Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic, 11-13, 11-5, 11-3, 11-8, on June 20, and that result mattered because it came against the home favorite with the tournament already tightening around the late rounds. He followed with a five-game escape against Hiroto Shinozuka, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, using the better shot selection in the longest rallies and sharper decisions at the business end of games to keep his run alive.

That is where the case for Gauzy got stronger, not weaker. In both wins, his stamina held up, his point construction improved as the matches wore on and he repeatedly found cleaner answers once the score flipped into pressure time. Against Jorgic and Shinozuka, he did not just hang around. He solved the late stages better than his opponents did, and that is often the difference between a nice week and a meaningful one at this level.

Calderano ended the run on June 21 in a semifinal that went the distance, 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 12-10. Gauzy fought back from two games down and made it a high-quality match, but the final points belonged to one of the tournament’s elite contenders. That is the clean read on Ljubljana: Gauzy is not just collecting wins again. He is building a profile that can bother major WTT seeds deep into events, even if Calderano proved he is not quite back to elite-favorite status yet.