ATP Challenger Tour

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 top tier of men's tennis is the ATP World Tour, Challenger Tour events are the second highest level of competition, and the Futures tournaments on the ITF Men's Circuit are the third and final tier of international professional competition. The ATP Challenger Tour is administered by the Association of Tennis Professionals. This differs from women's tennis, where all the tournaments below WTA Tour level, i.e. the equivalent of both Challengers and Futures, form part of the ITF Women's Circuit administered by the International Tennis Federation. Players who succeed on the ATP Challenger Tour earn sufficient ranking points to become eligible for main draw or qualifying draw entry at ATP World Tour tournaments.

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.

Present-day prize money and ranking points

Challenger tournaments offer total prize money ranging from $35,000 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 75 points for a $35K tournament to 125 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 250 to 2000.

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.

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.

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 extend it all the way through until the end of 2011.

Events

2010 champions
Tournament Sponsored name City Country Surface Current singles champions Current doubles champions
Belgrade GEMAX Open Belgrade  Serbia Carpet (i) Karol Beck Ilija Bozoljac /
Jamie Delgado
Tunisia Tunis Open Tunisia  Tunisia Clay (Red) (i) José Acasuso Jeff Coetzee /
Kristof Vliegen
Lugano BSI Challenger Lugano Lugano  Switzerland Clay (Red) Stanislas Wawrinka Frederico Gil /
Christophe Rochus
Torino Sporting Challenger Torino  Italy Hard Simone Bolelli Frederico Gil /
Carlos Berlocq
Scheveningen Siemens Open Scheveningen  Netherlands Clay (Red) Denis Gremelmayr Franco Ferreiro /
Harsh Mankad
Pozoblanco Open Diputación Pozoblanco  Spain Hard Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo Marcel Granollers /
Gerard Granollers-Pujol
Poznań Poznań Porsche Open Poznań  Poland Clay (Red) Denis Gremelmayr Rui Machado /
Daniel Muñoz-De La Nava
Cordenons Zucchetti Kos Tennis Cup Cordenons  Italy Clay (Red) Steve Darcis Robin Haase /
Rogier Wassen
City of San Marino San Marino CEPU Open City of San Marino  San Marino Clay (Red) Robin Haase Daniele Bracciali /
Lovro Zovko
Segovia Open Castilla y León Segovia  Spain Hard Daniel Gimeno-Traver Thiago Alves /
Franco Ferreiro
Szczecin Pekao Open Szczecin  Poland Hard Pablo Cuevas Dustin Brown /
Rogier Wassen
Mons Ethias Trophy Mons  Belgium Hard (i) Adrian Mannarino Filip Polášek /
Igor Zelenay
Bratislava Tatra Banka Slovak Open Bratislava  Slovakia Hard (i) Martin Kližan Colin Fleming /
Jamie Murray

See also

References

External links