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.

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 17517510060321500620TBP
Challenger 12512575452511005201257545250
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
1Taiwan Lu Yen-hsun29
2Israel Dudi Sela23
3Italy Paolo Lorenzi21
4Argentina Carlos Berlocq19
5Japan Go Soeda18
6Argentina Maximo Gonzalez17
Slovenia Blaz Kavcic
8Japan Takao Suzuki16
Slovenia Aljaz Bedene
Argentina Facundo Bagnis

Most matches won

Updatedas of 19 April 2023

#Matches wonYears
423Spain Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo2000–2017
421Italy Paolo Lorenzi2003–2021
409Japan Go Soeda2004–2022
369Chinese Taipei Lu Yen-hsun2002–2018
350Argentina Carlos Berlocq2002–2019
342Argentina Facundo Bagnis2009–2023
328Italy Filippo Volandri1999–2016
325Slovenia Blaž Kavčič2007–2022
323Brazil Rogério Dutra Silva2006–2019
321Israel Dudi Sela2003–2022
306Argentina Horacio Zeballos2006–2017
minimum 300 wins

Oldest champions

PlayerAgeTitle
Croatia Ivo Karlović39 years, 7 monthsCalgary 2018
Spain Fernando Verdasco38 years, 3 monthsMonterrey 2022
Belgium Dick Norman38 years, 1 monthMexico City 2009
France Stéphane Robert37 years, 8 monthsBurnie 2018
Australia Bob Carmichael37 years, 6 monthsHobart 1978
France Stéphane Robert37 years, 5 monthsKobe 2017
Spain Tommy Robredo37 years, 1 monthParma 2019
Spain Tommy Robredo37 years, 1 monthPoznań 2019
Italy Andreas Seppi37 yearsBiella III 2021
Dominican Republic Víctor Estrella Burgos37 yearsSanto Domingo 2017

Youngest champions

PlayerAgeTitle
United States Michael Chang15 years, 7 monthsLas Vegas 1987
France Richard Gasquet16 yearsMontauban 2002
Australia Bernard Tomic16 years, 4 monthsMelbourne 2009
Sweden Kent Carlsson16 years, 7 monthsNew Ulm 1984
South Africa Marcos Ondruska16 years, 7 monthsDurban 1989
France Richard Gasquet16 years, 8 monthsSarajevo 2003
Spain Rafael Nadal16 years, 9 monthsBarletta 2003
France Richard Gasquet16 years, 10 monthsNapoli 2003
Canada Félix Auger-Aliassime16 years, 10 monthsLyon 2017

Youngest to win multiple titles

PlayerAgeTitle
France Richard Gasquet16 years, 8 monthsSarajevo 2003
Canada Félix Auger-Aliassime17 years, 1 monthSevilla 2017
Spain Rafael Nadal17 years, 1 monthSegovia 2003
Australia Bernard Tomic17 years, 3 monthsBurnie 2010
Spain Carlos Alcaraz17 years, 5 monthsBarcelona 2020
Serbia Novak Djokovic17 years, 5 monthsAachen 2004
Argentina Juan Martin del Potro17 years, 6 monthsAguascalientes 2006

Youngest to win three titles

France Richard Gasquet16 years, 10 monthsNapoli 2003
Spain Carlos Alcaraz17 years, 5 monthsBarcelona 2020
Canada Félix Auger-Aliassime17 years, 10 monthsLyon 2018
Argentina Juan Martin del Potro17 years, 10 monthsSegovia 2006
Serbia Novak Djokovic17 years, 11 monthsAachen 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

References

  1. ↑ "ATP & ITA Unite To Accelerate Professional Development For US Collegiate Players | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  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.
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