Raphael Collignon was one of tennis’ best-kept secrets until this week. On Sunday the 24-year-old Belgian became the name the sport is searching for, having stormed into the first ATP Tour final of his career at the EFG Swiss Open in Gstaad. Seeded seventh at the clay-court ATP 250, Collignon assembled the best week of his life to get there, beating Timofey Skatov, Lorenzo Sonego and third seed Valentin Vacherot before a semi-final for the ages against sixth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
A set down and staring at defeat, he saved a match point and reeled off the closing games to win 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 — the kind of escape that turns an unknown into a talking point overnight. His reward was a title match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, the former world No. 3 chasing a revival of his own.
So who is he? Collignon’s story begins, improbably, in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was born in January 2002 while his father worked at the Mayo Clinic. The family returned to Belgium before his first birthday, and he grew up in Liège, first picking up a racket at the age of four by hitting against a wall while his father played at the local club. He is now guided by Steve Darcis, Belgium’s Davis Cup captain and a former world No. 38 who knows intimately the tour grind Collignon is climbing through.
That climb has been steep but steady. He broke into the top 100 for the first time in February 2025 and has since risen to a career high around No. 42 — progress built on the Challenger circuit and punctuated by eye-catching wins at the highest level. He beat two-time champion Grigor Dimitrov to reach the Brisbane quarter-finals, upset then-No. 12 Casper Ruud en route to the US Open third round in 2025, and produced arguably his biggest result by defeating Alex de Minaur to help Belgium past Australia in the Davis Cup. This year he reached the third round at Roland Garros — with a win over American Ben Shelton along the way — and the quarter-finals on grass in Halle.
At 6-foot-3, Collignon pairs a heavy serve with an aggressive, two-handed-backhand baseline game that has translated increasingly well from Challenger courts to the main tour. But he is not a standard baseline grinder off it. He is an unabashed fashion obsessive who has dabbled in modelling and likes to wear, in his own words, things “not many others are wearing.” He counts Barcelona and Standard Liège among his football loyalties and lists cycling among his hobbies — a personality with edges, and part of why casual fans are warming to him so fast.
The Gstaad run guarantees a fresh career-high ranking when the new list is published on Monday, whatever Sunday delivers, and pushes him firmly into view as the North American hard-court swing approaches. A first ATP title would be a storybook finish; even a runner-up showing represents the breakthrough fortnight of his career.
For Belgian tennis, long carried by David Goffin, Collignon’s emergence offers a timely lift. For everyone else, he is the weekend’s discovery: a big-hitting shotmaker with a flair for the dramatic and, as of this week, a name worth remembering.


