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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 top tier of annual 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 fourth tier 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 World Tour tournaments. Players on the Challenger Tour are either young players looking to advance their careers, those who fail to qualify for ATP events, or former ATP winners looking to get back into the big tour.

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 $40,000 up to $220,000+, 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:^[1]

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 Title

Lu Yen-hsun has won 29 ATP Challenger Tour titles.

Oldest Champions

Ivo Karlovic became the player who has won a challenger title at the oldest age, winning the 2018 Calgary National Bank Challenger at 39 years, 7 months. ^[2]

Player	Age	Title
Ivo Karlovic	39 years, 7 months	Calgary 2018
Dick Norman	38 years, 1 month	Mexico City 2009
Stephane Robert	37 years, 8 months	Burnie 2018
Bob Carmichael	37 years, 6 months	Hobart 1978
Stephane Robert	37 years, 5 months	Kobe 2017
Víctor Estrella Burgos	37 years	Santo Domingo 2017

List of events

Challenger 125 ($150,000+H / €127,000+H)

• 
  Aberto de São Paulo (2001–2014)


• Abierto GNP Seguros


• AON Open Challenger


• Bengaluru Open


• Busan Open Challenger


• Città di Caltanissetta


• 
  Ethias Trophy (2005–2016)


• 
  Intersport Heilbronn Open (−2015)


• Irving Tennis Classic


• IsarOpen


• Kaohsiung OEC Open


• Kunming Open


• Moneta Czech Open


• Nature Valley Open


• Open d'Orléans


• Open du Pays d'Aix


• Oracle Challenger Series – Chicago


• Oracle Challenger Series – Houston


• Oracle Challenger Series – Indian Wells


• Oracle Challenger Series – Newport Beach


• Pekao Szczecin Open


• Santaizi Challenger


• Sparkassen Open


• Arizona Tennis Classic

Challenger 110 ($150,000 / €127,000 / $125,000+H / €106,000+H)

• 
  Abierto de Puebla (2016)


• Brest Challenger


• BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux


• Fuzion 100 Ilkley Trophy


• Lisheng Sports Cup Jinan International Open


• 
  Hua Hin Open Challenger (2015-2017)


• 
  Israel Open (2015–2016)


• 
  Kunming Challenger (2013)


• Santo Domingo Open presented by Milex


• Slovak Open


• Surbiton Trophy


• Yinzhou International Men's Tennis Challenger

Challenger 100 ($125,000 / $100,000+H / €106,000 / €85,000+H)

• CDMX Open


• 
  China International Challenger Qingdao (2016-2017)


• 
  Geneva Open (1992–2014)


• 
  Hoff Open (2015–2016)


• 
  Honggutan China International Challenger Nanchang (2014–2016)


• International Challenger Chengdu


• Internationaux de Tennis de Vendée


• 
  Internazionali di Monza e Brianza (2005–2012)


• Open Castilla y León


• Open de Guadeloupe


• President's Cup


• RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas


• 
  Sacramento Challenger (2005–2015)


• 
  San Marino GO&FUN Open (2001–2014)


• Seoul Open Challenger


• 
  Soweto Open (2009–2013)


• Srpska Open


• 
  Wrocław Open (2015-2017)

Other tournaments

See also

• 2019 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

• Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) official website


• List of Upcoming/Past Challenger events