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.

History of challenger events

Logo of the Challenger Tour pre 2009.

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

• 2008 ATP Challenger Series
• 2009 ATP Challenger Tour
• 2010 ATP Challenger Tour
• 2011 ATP Challenger Tour

References

• ATP 2010 Tretorn SERIE+
• Entry Points and Prize Money Table
• US Open Prize Money
• Challengers not during the 2nd Week of a Grand Slam
• Challenger Example from 2nd Week of French Open
• Article mentioning Agassi's Las Vegas Challenger
• Overview from ATPtennis.com

External links

• Official Website of the ATP
• List of Upcoming/Past Challenger events