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The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP Tour. The ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments are on the entry-level of international professional tennis competition. The ATP Challenger Tour is administered by the Association of Tennis Professionals. Players who succeed on the ATP Challenger Tour earn sufficient ranking points to become eligible for main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP Tour tournaments. Players on the Challenger Tour are usually young players looking to advance their careers, those who fail to qualify for ATP events, or former ATP players looking to get back into the big tour.
The first challenger events were held in 1978, with eighteen events taking place. Two were held on the week beginning January 8, one in Auckland and another in Hobart. The next events were held one at a time beginning June 18 and ending August 18 in the following U.S. locations, in order: Shreveport, Birmingham, Asheville, Raleigh, Hilton Head, Virginia Beach, Wall, Cape Cod, and Lancaster. Events continued after a one-month hiatus with two begun September 24 and 25, one in Tinton Falls, New Jersey and in Lincoln, Nebraska respectively. The following week saw one event played, in Salt Lake City, then two played simultaneously in Tel Aviv and San Ramon, California, then one played the following week in Pasadena. A final event was played a month later in Kyoto. In comparison, the 2008 schedule saw 178 events played in more than 40 countries.
In efforts to further the progression of college and junior players into the professional tour, the ATP Challenger Tour has partnered with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to give players more opportunities on the professional tour. Those that finish in the top 10 of the end-of-year college rankings are now eligible for six wild cards into the main draw of Challenger events, and if they have finished their college education, they receive 8 of those wild cards. Those that finish in the 11 through 20 range of the collegiate rankings are eligible for six qualifying wild cards, with those who have completed their college education being eligible for eight wild cards. [1]
Much like the partnership with the ITA, the Challenger Tour also partnered with the ITF. This partnership granted those with year-end rankings inside the top 10 in the world eligible for eight main draw Challenger Tour wildcards, and those who finished the year between 11 and 20 in the world receiving eight Challenger Tour qualifying wildcards. [2]
In 2022, during the most numerous season in the tour's history, [3] the ATP Tour announced an overhaul of the tournaments system from 2023 season. Challenger 110 and Challenger 90 events were scrapped, Challenger 80 reduced to the Challenger 75 while the prize money requirements for it and Challenger 100 were increased. It also introduced the new highest category − Challenger 175 to be inaugurally held in the second week of Indian Wells, Rome and Madrid ATP Tour Masters 1000 events. [4]
The new points system is as follows:
Tournament Category | Singles | Doubles | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W | F | SF | QF | R16 | R32 | R48 | Q | Q2 | Q3 | W | F | SF | QF | R16 | |
Challenger 175 | 175 | 100 | 60 | 32 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | TBP | ||||
Challenger 125 | 125 | 75 | 45 | 25 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 125 | 75 | 45 | 25 | 0 |
Challenger 100 | 100 | 60 | 36 | 20 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 100 | 60 | 36 | 20 | 0 |
Challenger 75 | 75 | 50 | 30 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 75 | 50 | 30 | 16 | 0 |
Challenger 50 | 50 | 30 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 50 | 30 | 17 | 9 | 0 |
Challenger tournaments offer total prize money ranging from $30,000 up to $168,000+, which, along with whether the tournament provides hospitality (food and lodging) to the players, determines the number of points a player gets for winning each match in the tournament.Hospitality moves the points distribution up one level and the points to the overall winner range from 80 points for a $40,000 tournament to 125 points for a $220,000 tournament with hospitality. In contrast, the ATP-level tournaments offer total prize money from $400,000 to over $6 million and points to the overall winners from 250 to 1500.As a point of reference, player rankings are based on points accumulated in the previous 52 weeks, and as of February 2016, a player who has earned 550 points in the last 52 weeks would be ranked just below the 100th position. 250 points would get him a ranking just below 200th, while with 100 points he would get to around 425th, and 50 points would put him just below 600th. So rankings points earned in Challengers can help a low-ranked player to move up in the rankings quickly.Points are awarded as follows: [5]
Tournament Category | Singles | Doubles | ||||||||||||
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W | F | SF | QF | R16 | R32 | R48 | Q | Q1 | W | F | SF | QF | R16 | |
Challenger 125 | 125 | 75 | 45 | 25 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 75 | 45 | 25 | 0 |
Challenger 110 | 110 | 65 | 40 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 110 | 65 | 40 | 20 | 0 |
Challenger 100 | 100 | 60 | 35 | 18 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 60 | 35 | 18 | 0 |
Challenger 90 | 90 | 55 | 33 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 55 | 33 | 17 | 0 |
Challenger 80 | 80 | 48 | 29 | 15 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 48 | 29 | 15 | 0 |
Players have usually had success at the Futures tournaments of the ITF Men's Circuit before competing in Challengers. Due to the lower level of points and money available at the Challenger level, most players in a Challenger have a world ranking of 100 to 500 for a $35K tournament and 50 to 250 for a $150K tournament. An exception happens during the second week of a Grand Slam tournament, when top-100 players who have already lost in the Slam try to take a wild card entry into a Challenger tournament beginning that second week.
In February 2007, Tretorn became the official ball of the Challenger Series, and the sponsor of a new series consisting of those Challenger tournaments with prize money of $100,000 or more. They renewed the sponsorship with the ATP in 2010 and extended it until the end of 2011.
Position | Player | Title |
---|---|---|
1 | Lu Yen-hsun | 29 |
2 | Dudi Sela | 23 |
3 | Paolo Lorenzi | 21 |
4 | Carlos Berlocq | 19 |
5 | Go Soeda | 18 |
6 | Maximo Gonzalez | 17 |
Blaz Kavcic | ||
8 | Takao Suzuki | 16 |
Aljaz Bedene | ||
Facundo Bagnis |
Updatedas of 19 April 2023 [update]
# | Matches won | Years |
---|---|---|
423 | Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo | 2000–2017 |
421 | Paolo Lorenzi | 2003–2021 |
409 | Go Soeda | 2004–2022 |
369 | Lu Yen-hsun | 2002–2018 |
350 | Carlos Berlocq | 2002–2019 |
342 | Facundo Bagnis | 2009–2023 |
328 | Filippo Volandri | 1999–2016 |
325 | Blaž Kavčič | 2007–2022 |
323 | Rogério Dutra Silva | 2006–2019 |
321 | Dudi Sela | 2003–2022 |
306 | Horacio Zeballos | 2006–2017 |
minimum 300 wins |
Player | Age | Title |
---|---|---|
Ivo Karlović | 39 years, 7 months | Calgary 2018 |
Fernando Verdasco | 38 years, 3 months | Monterrey 2022 |
Dick Norman | 38 years, 1 month | Mexico City 2009 |
Stéphane Robert | 37 years, 8 months | Burnie 2018 |
Bob Carmichael | 37 years, 6 months | Hobart 1978 |
Stéphane Robert | 37 years, 5 months | Kobe 2017 |
Tommy Robredo | 37 years, 1 month | Parma 2019 |
Tommy Robredo | 37 years, 1 month | Poznań 2019 |
Andreas Seppi | 37 years | Biella III 2021 |
Víctor Estrella Burgos | 37 years | Santo Domingo 2017 |
Player | Age | Title |
---|---|---|
Michael Chang | 15 years, 7 months | Las Vegas 1987 |
Richard Gasquet | 16 years | Montauban 2002 |
Bernard Tomic | 16 years, 4 months | Melbourne 2009 |
Kent Carlsson | 16 years, 7 months | New Ulm 1984 |
Marcos Ondruska | 16 years, 7 months | Durban 1989 |
Richard Gasquet | 16 years, 8 months | Sarajevo 2003 |
Rafael Nadal | 16 years, 9 months | Barletta 2003 |
Richard Gasquet | 16 years, 10 months | Napoli 2003 |
Félix Auger-Aliassime | 16 years, 10 months | Lyon 2017 |
Player | Age | Title |
---|---|---|
Richard Gasquet | 16 years, 8 months | Sarajevo 2003 |
Félix Auger-Aliassime | 17 years, 1 month | Sevilla 2017 |
Rafael Nadal | 17 years, 1 month | Segovia 2003 |
Bernard Tomic | 17 years, 3 months | Burnie 2010 |
Carlos Alcaraz | 17 years, 5 months | Barcelona 2020 |
Novak Djokovic | 17 years, 5 months | Aachen 2004 |
Juan Martin del Potro | 17 years, 6 months | Aguascalientes 2006 |
Richard Gasquet | 16 years, 10 months | Napoli 2003 |
Carlos Alcaraz | 17 years, 5 months | Alicente 2020 |
Félix Auger-Aliassime | 17 years, 10 months | Lyon 2018 |
Juan Martin del Potro | 17 years, 10 months | Segovia 2006 |
Novak Djokovic | 17 years, 11 months | San Remo 2005 |
The Tampere Open is the longest running ATP Challenger event. [3]
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