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The cheapest Challenger week of the year tennisnet.com

At the ATP Challenger tournament in Phoenix, there is a field that would do any 250 event credit. The reason for this is the appointment calendar of the ATP.

by Jens Huiber

last edited: 03/14/2023, 09:21 am

Matteo Berrettini starts in Phoenix as number one

© Getty Images

Matteo Berrettini starts in Phoenix as number one

Because “more” is almost always equated with “better” in professional sports, there have been efforts for years (by the respective tournament organizers) to introduce new categories: why not make a 1,500er out of Indian Wells and Shanghai, why not Elevate Basel to the status of a 750? Well, nothing has come of it so far, maybe also because the corona pandemic has cooled the entire circus a bit.

However, there is a premiere this week at the Challenger level: since yesterday, an event in the 175 category has been taking place in Phoenix, Arizona for the first time. So that means there are 175 points for the ATP world rankings for the winner. And that’s more than a finalist gets in an ATP Tour 250 tournament (there’s only 150 to get into the final). The fact that the prize money for the champion in Phoenix is ​​almost 30,000 US dollars is not bad for an event on the second level.

Berrettini opens against Ivashka

However, the financial bonus will not have been the reason as much as the ATP counter that quite a few well-known players are represented in the tableau with Matteo Berrettini, Diego Schwartzman, Richard Gasquet or youngster Jiri Lehecka. Some of them spontaneously: Ilya Ivashka had barely lost to Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells when his name was already painted on the Phoenix grid. By the way, Ivashka wasn’t lucky in the draw: he has to play against Berrettini right away.

The reason why this one week is so attractive is obvious: the players who failed in Indian Wells are not yet traveling back to Europe, after all the Masters in Miami is still coming up. One already benefited from this constellation in 2019 and the previous tournament in Irving.

Here the individual tableau in Phoenix

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