ATP Challenger Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ATP Challenger Series is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments that allow players to win enough ranking points to earn an entry into an ATP-level (usually International Series tournaments) main draw or qualifying draw. They are fully administered by the ATP Tour.

1 Prize Money and Ranking Points
2 Player Quality
3 Tretorn Serie+
- 3.1 2008 tournaments
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Prize Money and Ranking Points

Challenger tournaments offer total prize money ranging from $25,000 up to $150,000, 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 bumps the points distribution up one level, and the points to the overall winner range from 50 points for a $25K tournament to 100 points for $150K with Hospitality, in contrast of ATP-level tournaments, which offer total prize money from $400K to over $6 Million and points to the overall winners from 175 to 1000.

As a point of reference, player rankings are based on points accumulated in the previous 52 weeks, and in any given week of rankings, a player who has earned 400 points in the last 52 weeks would be ranked around the 100th position. 200 points would get him a ranking near 200th, while with 100 points he would get to about the 350th, and 50 points would put him close to the 500th. So rankings points earned in Challengers can help a player to move up in the rankings quickly.

[edit] Player Quality

Players have usually had success at the Futures tournaments of the ATP Tour 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 $25K 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 2008 tournaments

Type	Tournament	Surface	Town	Country	Continent	Prize Money
TS+	Heilbronn Open GbR	Hard (Indoor)	Heilbronn	Germany	Europe	€85,000
TS+	KGHM Dialog Polish Indoors	Hard (Indoor)	Wroclaw	Poland	Europe	€106,500
TS+	GEMAX Open	Hard (Indoor)	Belgrade	Serbia	Europe	€106,500
TS+	Napoli Tennis Cup	Clay	Naples	Italy	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Tunis Open	Clay	Tunis	Tunisia	Africa	$125,000
TS+	ECM Prague Open	Clay	Prague	Czech Republic	Europe	€64,000
TS+	Open Diputación	Hard (Outdoor)	Pozoblanco	Spain	Europe	€84,000
TS+	Challenger Lugano	Clay	Lugano	Switzerland	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Sporting Challenger	Clay	Turin	Italy	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Siemens Open	Clay	Scheveningen	Netherlands	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Porsche Open	Clay	Poznań	Poland	Europe	€85,000
TS+	San Marino CEPU Open	Clay	San Marino	San Marino	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Euro Sporting Challenger	Clay	Cordenons	Italy	Europe	€85,000
TS+	Open Castilla y León	Hard (Outdoor)	El Espinar	Spain	Europe	€106,500
TS+	Pekao Open	Clay	Szczecin	Poland	Europe	TBD
TS+	Ethias Trophy	Hard (Indoor)	Mons	Belgium	Europe	TDB
TS+	Challenger 42	Hard (Indoor)	Andrézieux	France	Europe	TBD
TS+	Tatra Banka Slovak Open	Hard (Indoor)	Bratislava	Slovakia	Europe	TDB
TS+	PEOPLEnet Cup	Hard (Indoor)	Dnepropetrovsk	Ukraine	Europe	TDB