Someone asked on the Granby thread whether Big Arv was the last Brit to win a Challenger title other than Muzza and Boggo, so I thought it might be useful to have a list of Brits who have won Challenger titles in this millennium - it'll also help answer the question "Who was the last Brit to win a Challenger whose first name didn't start with A?" (it started with B LOL)
If I've missed any titles, please shout! They are in date order within each year even though I haven't put the exact months.
2001 Bristol GBR - Jamie Delgado 1 (grass) 2001 Gramado BRA - Barry Cowan 2 (outdoor hard)
2003 Denver USA - Arvind Parmar 1 (outdoor hard) - beat Boggo in the semis!
2004 Ho Chi Minh VIE - Arvind Parmar 2 (outdoor hard) 2004 Manchester GBR - Alex Bogdanovic 1 (grass)
2005 Nottingham GBR - Alex Bogdanovic 2 (grass) 2005 Aptos USA - Andy Murray 1 (outdoor hard) 2005 Binghamton USA - Andy Murray 2 (outdoor hard) 2005 Sunderland GBR - Alex Bogdanovic 3 (indoor hard)
2006 Wrexham GBR - Alex Bogdanovic 4 (indoor hard) 2006 Bergamo ITA - Alex Bogdanovic 5 (indoor hard) - his first outside the UK 2006 Shrewsbury GBR - Alex Bogdanovic 6 (indoor hard)
2007 Valencia USA - Alex Bogdanovic 7 (outdoor hard) - his first outdoors not on grass
2008 Granby CAN - Alex Bogdanovic 8 (outdoor hard)
2009 Jersey GBR - Dan Evans 1 (indoor hard) 2009 Sarasota USA - James Ward 1 (clay)
What would we do without the Bogster at Challenger level?! (especially now that he has morphed into a North America outdoor hard specialist)
Edit: There is now a full list of Brits who have reached Challenger Finals since 1.1.2000 at http://www.britishtennis.net/gbtop25m/challfin.htm, with all the losing finalists listed as well and some extra info on each win.
-- Edited by steven on Sunday 29th of March 2009 12:31:02 PM
-- Edited by steven on Saturday 16th of May 2009 07:44:58 PM
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
ok next question is a bit of speculation: who will be the next to win a challenger?
so alex is on 8 and counting, does he hold the most challenger titles of all the brits of all time?
how many did dick norman win (i am guessing he is the challenger king) i wonder if alex can outdo him. of course its double edged as you want to be doing mediocre in atps rather the winning chllengers
-- Edited by Count Zero at 10:29, 2008-07-16
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Count Zero - Creator of the Statistical Tennis Extrapolation & Verification ENtity or, as we like to call him, that steven.
I'm not sure if he really is the Challenger king, but Dick Norman won 12 Challengers - he's still going too, he's already reached a Challenger Final this month!
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
There's a thread on MTF which has El Aynaoui and Suzuki as having won 15 challenger titles. (Suzuki from 17 finals, which is a very impressive conversion rate)
Next to a win a challenger could be Baker, or maybe someone like Eaton in a weak event on a very fast court.
Think Slabba has a shot as well, especially in something like the Dehli event which isn't strong at all, while hopefully Ward can reach the level where he can win them soon as well.
Next Brit to win a challenger? Bogdanovic, who will win another one before another Brit does, I think
Alexander Slabinsky will be the next person (barring Boggo, of course) to land a Challenger title in my opinion. I see Baker, Ward and Cox doing it next year if they work hard enough.
Bloomers deserves one, too, but he needs to string together wins again.
Next challenge: How many challenger defeated finalists have we had?
I know there's Hilton at Nottingham beaten by Boggo, Jonny in FAr East, I think it was Kyoto, Goodall at Manchester, havent Baker and Bloomers both reached finals as well, sounds like we have much more success reaching finals than winning them, but I may be wrong, Boggo lost to Tipsy I remember out in Eastern europe I think,
I'm sure Steven will be able to produce a more comprehensive list with a bit of luck (hint hint)
Think Baker lost to Russell somewhere at the start of last season when he was on his hot run.
Thought he did, but a check reveals that Lee Childs did reach a challenger final in India back in 2003 as a qualifier, beating Baghdatis along the way.
As did Jamie Delgado (thought he must have done so at some point), who won 3 challengers, and reached 3 other finals, but the last was back in 2001 where he won Bristol and reached the final in Manchester in back to back weeks.
Don't think Auckland ever got that far, and we know that Boggo, Baker, Goodall and Bloomers have all done so
Next challenge: How many challenger defeated finalists have we had?
Lots! I was noticing them on the way through looking for winners and decided not to list them because I'd probably miss so many by not guessing the players to check.
I could start to put a list together though, just don't expect it to be finished any time soon! LOL
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Alexander Slabinsky will be the next person (barring Boggo, of course) to land a Challenger title in my opinion. I see Baker, Ward and Cox doing it next year if they work hard enough.
Bloomers deserves one, too, but he needs to string together wins again.
I dont see Slabba as being that close, much as he has improved (far beyond my expectations) , but he still tends to follow a good win with a bad loss, which doesnt make you an event winner. I would see a fit again Baker as far more likely or maybe Bloomers or Josh as next most likely.
Grr I'd grabbed all the information (including adding the months and other opponent in Final names to the original list) and just as I was about to post it, my computer threw up a stop error and forced me to reboot.
Anyway, the one thing I can remember is who the players were (and I think the list is probably complete, because I looked at any Brit who has had more than 50 ranking points in the last 8 year-end ranking lists) and what their records in Finals are, which will at least help me to avoid wasting time when I come to look up the details again.
RECORDS OF INDIVIDUAL BRITS IN CHALLENGER FINALS SINCE 1.1.2000
Sorted by no. of titles, then no. of finals, then alphabetically.