The ATP has announced the 2017 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year, with players voting two of their favourite Challenger Tour stops in Germany (Braunschweig and Heilbronn) and one in Canada (Vancouver) from the 155 tournaments in 41 countries staged last year. The Challenger Tournament of the Year awards recognise excellence in standards set across the global Challenger Tour. Braunschweig’s 24-year-old Sparkassen OPEN has won the award every year since 2014 and has long been a player favourite. The NECKARCUP, staged in Heilbronn, Germany, for the last four years, and Vancouver’s Odlum Brown VanOpen, relaunched in 2017, have also been rewarded with the player vote after ambitious improvements each year. ATP Challenger Tour Committee Co-Chairs, Alison Lee, ATP International Executive...
There is a new star emerging in Australian tennis. After reaching the semi-finals in just his fourth ATP Challenger Tour event, at the Shimadzu Kyoto Challenger, 19-year-old Blake Ellis has plenty of cause for optimism. The Brisbane native showcased his fighting quality in Kyoto, with three consecutive three-set wins over Japanese opposition before falling to top seed John Millman in the last four. Ellis is now one of four Aussie teenagers inside the Top 600 of the ATP Rankings, having risen 164 spots to a new career-high No. 510 in the ATP Rankings on Monday. But don’t let that ranking fool you. Embarking on what he hopes to be his first full season as a professional, he is ready to...
A LOOK BACK Trofeo Perrel Faip (Bergamo, Italy): As good as Matteo Berrettini's breakthrough 2017 campaign was, his 2018 season looks to be even better. The 21-year-old Italian capped a strong two-month stretch with the title at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Bergamo on Sunday. He secured his second Challenger crown with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over countryman Stefano Napolitano in one hour and 53 minutes. Both of Berrettini's titles have come on home soil, having also prevailed in San Benedetto last year. He joins Andreas Seppi (2008 & 2011) and Simone Bolelli as Italian winners in Bergamo. Now, up to a career-high of No. 104 in the ATP Rankings, the Top 100 is well within reach for...
(1) Mats Moraing is the ATP Challenger Tour's breakout star in 2018 The World No. 155 won his maiden Challenger title at home in Koblenz, Germany last month after reaching the final in Bangkok as a qualifier to open his 2018 season. After the biggest win of his career over former World No. 6 Gilles Simon in Cherbourg last week, Moraing took a moment to address the reasons behind his success, and how he feels about his early form in 2018. “I have been playing without injury since last year and practising hard. I think that has been the big difference and I'm playing consistently now. It was very special for me to win in Koblenz. It was my first...
In this edition of the Challenger Vault, Stan Wawrinka reflects on his ATP Challenger Tour victory in Lugano, Switzerland in 2009 and talks about how the circuit helped grow his game.
