The tennis wasn’t as star-studded on the ATP World Tour this week, but a trio of 250 events allowed an eclectic group of promising young players and veteran journeymen to grab headlines.  Here are five notable matches and three surprising surges in the early rounds that you might not have noticed before tuning in over the weekend.

Five notable matches:

Benjamin Becker d. Jesse Huta Galung 6-7(4) 6-3 7-6(6) (Zagreb first round)

A match between a pair of non-marquee players was notable for the massive momentum swings that occurred, mainly late in the third set. Huta Galung held seven match points across two different games, and the third-set tiebreak but didn’t convert any of them. Becker needed just a single match point in the third-set tiebreak to the take the match.  Huta Galung led 5-2 40-15 and 5-3 40-0 in the third set.  In the tiebreak, he led 5-1 and 6-4 but froze each and every time, failing to conjure up a big serve—or even at one point an easy swinging volley—to put the match away.

Other than some tenacious defense, Becker did nothing more special than putting the ball in play and letting Huta Galung spray it wildly. The match likely will go down as one of the year’s most stunning chokes in the ATP.

(Q) Michael Berrer d. (WC) Borna Coric 6-4 3-6 6-4 (Zagreb first round)

The veteran serve-volleyer Berrer grabbed the win, but the 17-year-old Croatian Coric stole the headline. He looks to be a future ATP star with some of the tennis he played in this clash on an indoor hard court. Coric showed off his shot-making with aggressive tactics and a fighting spirit as he came back from being broken to lose the first set to win the second set.  The teenager fought cramps in the third set as the match passed the two-hour mark, but still he made Berrer work for the win. Look for Coric to make more headlines at the ATP level in the future.

(Q) Marc Gicquel d. (2) Gilles Simon 7-6(4) 6-3 (Montpellier second round)

Simon may have been hobbled with a back injury, but his lackluster form continues with a disappointing loss to an opponent nearing his 37th birthday. Gicquel has produced some of his best results indoors in France, yet Simon also normally plays well in Montpellier. Breaking Gicquel three times, he was broken four times himself in two sets, and played a poor first-set tiebreak.

Leonardo Mayer d. (2) Tommy Robredo 3-6 7-6(8) 6-4 (Vina del Mar second round)

Another huge upset of a No. 2 seed unfolded this week. Robredo controlled proceedings against the Argentine Mayer for almost two full sets and held four match points. Mayer fought his way through a second-set tiebreak to a third set, where he broke Robredo in an atrocious service game by the Spaniard at 4-4 and then easily served out the match. Robredo was favored to do well on the Chilean clay this week, but Mayer earned just the second top-20 win of his well-traveled career.

Daniel Gimeno-Traver d. (6) Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6(4) 3-6 7-5 (Vina del Mar second round)

The Spanish veteran clay-courter Gimeno-Traver halted his 10-match ATP losing streak by extending Dolgopolov’s losing streak on clay to six. Dolgopolov had endured a miserable 2013 but also had showed some positive signs in January. He and his fans must hope this loss is a blip on the radar, rather than a sign of continued decline.  Dolgopolov actually won more total points in this match and broke Gimeno-Traver three times compared to just two for the Spaniard. But he did not play clutch tennis, losing the first-set tiebreak after leading 4-1 and losing the third set after leading 3-1.  Gimeno-Traver also ousted defending champion Horacio Zeballos in the second round.

Three surprising surges:

(Q) Andrey Kuznetsov (Zagreb quarterfinalist)

The formerly promising young Russian, who turns 23 soon, reached just his third career ATP quarterfinal and his first on hard courts. He did so by winning three qualifying matches and then defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4 7-6(8) and Igor Sijsling 1-6 6-3 7-6(5) to reach the quarterfinals. Stakhovsky and Sijsling are both good indoor players, who appeared to be in good form before their matches. As mentioned, many looked at Kuznetsov as one of the future leaders of Russian men’s tennis. This is perhaps a sign that he is moving toward reclaiming that status.

(Q) Taro Daniel (Vina del Mar quarterfinalist)

A rising young player from Japan who trains in Spain and has American ties, as a New York resident, Daniel earned his first career ATP win against a struggling but accomplished Thomaz Bellucci in the opening round. Then, he upset clay specialist Federico Delbonis 1-6 7-6(5) 7-6(7), saving a match point along the way.

Daniel, whom I interviewed last year, has an all-court game with plenty of athleticism. He will break into the top 200 after this showing and still has room to rise in his maiden ATP event. There is nothing like sporting a 2-0 career ATP record at 21. His results have shown continual improvement, since he lost in the final round of qualifying at Doha and the Australian Open. Daniel is now 9-3 in 2014, having also reached his first Challenger final at the end of last year.  

(Q) Bjorn Phau (Zagreb quarterfinalist)

In the vein of the likes of Brian Baker, Tommy Robredo and Tommy Haas, the veteran German Bjorn Phau may be the next great veteran comeback story in the ATP. Formerly ranked as high as No. 59 in 2006, he has fallen out of the top 350 and is trying to make a comeback from injury at the age of 34.

Known for his extreme quickness on the court, Phau was out for large parts of last year with rehab and qualified to make the main draw in Zagreb. After winning his first main-draw match in straight sets, he upset former champion and No. 2 seed Mikhail Youzhny 4-6 7-5 6-1, coming back from a set and a break down. Since this is just a 250 event, it’s not quite time to call Phau a comeback story. But this is a great sign, and his style of play is aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to watch.