ATP Challenger Tour Finals

Count Zero · Tennis legend

ATP Challenger Tour Finals

Shhh · Challenger level

Not sure how that will work as you say but certainly an interesting idea.

A futures final in Kuwait perhaps!

RJA · Hall of fame

Count Zero wrote:
on the 14th Nov Sao Paulo is hosting a 8 player $220k + H Challener tour final.
Anyone know anything about this? i wonder how they will pick the 8, will it be 8 highest points scores from challenger events, which kinda hurts players that have done well at ATP level etc as thats the points of challengers isn't it :) to get to ATP.

I think it is the 7 players with the most challenger points plus one wild card picked by the host country. As far as I am concerned the whole concept is somewhat foolish.

steven · Tennis legend

I agree that the concept is a bit silly - a bit of a sop to S America, I think, the ATP thinking they couldn't say no!

Just noticed though that the ATP are now publishing YTD Challenger-only rankings, which must be linked to this - see http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/YTD-Challenger-Rankings.aspx

Pre-USO, they were headed by Rosol, Bachinger, Sela, our old friends Stéphane Robert & Rui 'death by' Machado, then Prodon, Odesnik & Klizan.

Wardy was at 42, because of course a lot of his points come from ATPs - well, Queen's.

Jamie B at 136, Boggo 234, Cox 239 & Evo 258 completed the GB 'Challenger top 5'

Salmon · Tennis legend

Yes, the concept is a bit faulty because indirectly it may encourage someone to play a Challenger rather than a Tour event qualies/mains, but anything that allows someone outside the top 75 to win so much money can't be a bad thing. I can see serious amount of prize money on offer here. For example, winning ATP Sydney would give you $73.3K and while I haven't got any idea about the distribution here, I think it'll be more than $73.3K given that only 8 people are taking part.

On a related note, this seems to be the spiritual successor to the Copa Petrobras finals, which (I think) was discontinued in 2008/2009.

-- Edited by Salmon on Monday 12th of September 2011 02:23:54 PM

Smidster · Challenger level

It is also akin to the WTA 'Road to Bali' for the International tier events.

The floor for me is that the International Tier on the WTA is only just below the Premier Level (winners this year have included Azarenka, Kvitova and Wozniacki) where as the challenger tour is a definite step down.