ATP Challenger Tour

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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.

Contents

History of challenger events

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.

ATP Challenger Tour Partnering with ITA and ITF Circuit

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]

Present-day prize money and ranking points

2023–present

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 CategorySinglesDoubles
WFSFQFR16R32R48QQ2Q3WFSFQFR16
Challenger 175 17510060321500620TBP
Challenger 125 12575452511005201257545250
Challenger 1001006036209005201006036200
Challenger 7575503016700420755030160
Challenger 50503017940031050301790

2009–2022

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 CategorySinglesDoubles
WFSFQFR16R32R48QQ1WFSFQFR16
Challenger 1251257545251050001257545250
Challenger 110110654020950001106540200
Challenger 100100603518850001006035180
Challenger 909055331785000905533170
Challenger 808048291573000804829150

Player quality

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.

Tretorn Serie+

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.

Records

Most singles titles

PositionPlayerTitle
1 Flag of the Republic of China.svg Lu Yen-hsun 29
2 Flag of Israel.svg Dudi Sela 23
3 Flag of Italy.svg Paolo Lorenzi 21
4 Flag of Argentina.svg Carlos Berlocq 19
5 Flag of Japan.svg Go Soeda 18
6 Flag of Argentina.svg Maximo Gonzalez 17
Flag of Slovenia.svg Blaz Kavcic
8 Flag of Japan.svg Takao Suzuki 16
Flag of Slovenia.svg Aljaz Bedene
Flag of Argentina.svg Facundo Bagnis

Most matches won

Updatedas of 19 April 2023

#Matches wonYears
423 Flag of Spain.svg Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo 2000–2017
421 Flag of Italy.svg Paolo Lorenzi 2003–2021
409 Flag of Japan.svg Go Soeda 2004–2022
369 Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Lu Yen-hsun 2002–2018
350 Flag of Argentina.svg Carlos Berlocq 2002–2019
342 Flag of Argentina.svg Facundo Bagnis 2009–2023
328 Flag of Italy.svg Filippo Volandri 1999–2016
325 Flag of Slovenia.svg Blaž Kavčič 2007–2022
323 Flag of Brazil.svg Rogério Dutra Silva 2006–2019
321 Flag of Israel.svg Dudi Sela 2003–2022
306 Flag of Argentina.svg Horacio Zeballos 2006–2017
minimum 300 wins

Oldest champions

PlayerAgeTitle
Flag of Croatia.svg Ivo Karlović 39 years, 7 months Calgary 2018
Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Verdasco 38 years, 3 months Monterrey 2022
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Dick Norman 38 years, 1 month Mexico City 2009
Flag of France.svg Stéphane Robert 37 years, 8 months Burnie 2018
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bob Carmichael 37 years, 6 monthsHobart 1978
Flag of France.svg Stéphane Robert37 years, 5 months Kobe 2017
Flag of Spain.svg Tommy Robredo 37 years, 1 month Parma 2019
Flag of Spain.svg Tommy Robredo37 years, 1 month Poznań 2019
Flag of Italy.svg Andreas Seppi 37 years Biella III 2021
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg Víctor Estrella Burgos 37 years Santo Domingo 2017

Youngest champions

PlayerAgeTitle
Flag of the United States.svg Michael Chang 15 years, 7 monthsLas Vegas 1987
Flag of France.svg Richard Gasquet 16 yearsMontauban 2002
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bernard Tomic 16 years, 4 months Melbourne 2009
Flag of Sweden.svg Kent Carlsson 16 years, 7 monthsNew Ulm 1984
Flag of South Africa.svg Marcos Ondruska 16 years, 7 monthsDurban 1989
Flag of France.svg Richard Gasquet 16 years, 8 monthsSarajevo 2003
Flag of Spain.svg Rafael Nadal 16 years, 9 monthsBarletta 2003
Flag of France.svg Richard Gasquet 16 years, 10 monthsNapoli 2003
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Félix Auger-Aliassime 16 years, 10 months Lyon 2017

Youngest to win multiple titles

PlayerAgeTitle
Flag of France.svg Richard Gasquet 16 years, 8 monthsSarajevo 2003
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Félix Auger-Aliassime 17 years, 1 month Sevilla 2017
Flag of Spain.svg Rafael Nadal 17 years, 1 month Segovia 2003
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bernard Tomic 17 years, 3 months Burnie 2010
Flag of Spain.svg Carlos Alcaraz 17 years, 5 months Barcelona 2020
Flag of Serbia.svg Novak Djokovic 17 years, 5 months Aachen 2004
Flag of Argentina.svg Juan Martin del Potro 17 years, 6 monthsAguascalientes 2006

Youngest to win three titles

Flag of France.svg Richard Gasquet 16 years, 10 monthsNapoli 2003
Flag of Spain.svg Carlos Alcaraz 17 years, 5 months Alicente 2020
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Félix Auger-Aliassime 17 years, 10 months Lyon 2018
Flag of Argentina.svg Juan Martin del Potro 17 years, 10 months Segovia 2006
Flag of Serbia.svg Novak Djokovic 17 years, 11 months San Remo 2005

List of events

The Tampere Open is the longest running ATP Challenger event. [3]

Challenger 175 ($220,000+H / €200,000+H)

Challenger 125 ($160,000+H / €145,000+H)

Challenger 100 ($130,000+H / €118,000+H)

Defunct tournaments

Other tournaments

See also

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References

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  2. "ATP & ITF Collaborate To Accelerate Careers Of Aspiring Players | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Archived from the original on 2022-12-21. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  3. 1 2 "By The Numbers: 2022 ATP Challenger Tour". ATP Tour. 17 December 2022. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  4. "ATP Announces Record-Breaking Challenger Tour Enhancements". ATP Tour. 16 September 2022. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  5. "Rankings - FAQ - ATP Tour - Tennis". ATP Tour.