After seven years of grinding away on tour, Viktor Galovic of Croatia was rewarded last week with his first ATP Challenger Tour title. The 26 year old came through qualifying to prevail in Recanati, Italy. At No. 491 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Galovic is the lowest-ranked Challenger winner this year. His only other Challenger semi-final also came on Italian soil in Bergamo, but that maiden effort took place in February 2013. "It was both a dream come true and a nightmare. All the matches were really, really tough, especially mentally, but it was really nice to get through,” said Galovic. “At the end, I had all the possible emotions you can imagine. I was almost crying. All the tension...
Sweden is hungry for another rising star to crack the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, and #NextGenATP player Mikael Ymer is showing that he has the tools to achieve this with his run this week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Bastad. The 18 year old delighted the home crowd on Thursday with a 6-2, 6-4 win over second seed Renzo Olivo of Argentina to reach his first Challenger semi-final of the year. Ymer passed through the qualifying rounds in just one of the six Challenger events he’s played this season, but made full use of a wild card to produce an inspired run. “It feels great. I haven't had the best Challenger year, so I’ve been...
The ATP Challenger Tour turned its attention to Braunschweig, Germany, this week as the ATP welcomed representatives from tournaments and national federations throughout the world for the inaugural Global Challenger Workshop. With the goal of making the burgeoning circuit even stronger, the forum fostered an open dialogue between tournaments and ATP staff. The two days of collaboration and integration of ideas also included the awards presentation for 2016 ATP Challenger Tournaments of the Year. The Sparkassen Open in Braunschweig and Pekao Szczecin Open in Szczecin, Poland, were acknowledged for their passion and commitment to growing the game at the Challenger level. "This was the the first time we hosted an international ATP Challenger workshop," said Alison Lee, co-Chair Challenger Committee...