Djokovic cuts ties with player union he co-founded
Novak Djokovic says he has ended his involvement with the Professional Tennis Players Association that he co-founded, expressing concerns over “transparency and governance”.
Novak Djokovic says he has ended his involvement with the Professional Tennis Players Association that he co-founded, expressing concerns over “transparency and governance”.
Flavio Cobolli again embraced the responsibility of the moment on Sunday at the United Cup in Perth, where he sent Italy to a deciding mixed-doubles rubber against Switzerland.
The 23-year-old, who helped steer Italy to its third consecutive Davis Cup title in November, produced a gutsy finish to withstand spirited 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(4) after two hours, 50 minutes and level the tie at 1-1.
Belinda Bencic had earlier scored a statement straight-sets win over Jasmine Paolini to give Switzerland the lead before Cobolli fought back. The Swiss could still, however, finish top of Group C on Sunday and qualify for the quarter-finals if they win the tie, which will now be settled in mixed doubles.
Wawrinka, contesting his final season on Tour, pulled off a dramatic third-set tie-break win over Arthur Rinderknech on Saturday. The three-time major champion remained competitive throughout much of the match against Cobolli, but was unable to generate a break point as the Italian maintained his composure.
Wawrinka and Cobolli treated the RAC Arena crowd to a captivating duel deep into the deciding set, highlighted by a moment of magic from Cobolli, who steadied himself under pressure and fired a stunning forehand winner on the run to claim a mini-break in a tense final-set tie-break en route to improving to 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
[NO 1 CLUB]Earlier, Bencic put Switzerland in prime position to secure their spot in the United Cup quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over World No. 3 Paolini to take a 1-0 lead in the tie.
“I’m really happy with today’s match,” Bencic said on-court after the one hour and 53 minute match. “I lost to her really close at the end of last season. I really had to organize my mind that ‘now it’s my time, I can do it.’ I thought it was a bit mental today.”
Bencic is now 2-0 in singles, following her 6-2, 6-4 win over Leolia Jeanjean Saturday. Paolini will face Jeanjean in Italy’s next tie against France.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Frances Tiafoe and Learner Tien may have closed the 2025 season on very different notes, but both began the new year in impressive fashion on Sunday at the Brisbane International presented by ANZ.
After losing his final five matches of 2025, Tiafoe responded with a composed 6-2, 6-2 victory over Aleksandar Vukic. The World No. 30 struck 12 winners while committing just eight unforced errors in a tidy 60-minute display.
“It’s good to be back in Brisbane,” said Tiafoe, who also attended the Brisbane Heat cricket match on Friday. “I think I had one of the worst first bowls in history… But that was a lot of fun. It was a great first cricket experience for me.”
[NO 1 CLUB]Tiafoe, the former No. 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, now awaits a second-round meeting with top seed Daniil Medvedev or Marton Fucsovics.
Tien was also a winner on Day 1 in Brisbane. The 20-year-old earned a hard-fought 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Camilo Ugo Carabelli, continuing on from the form with which he won consecutive titles in Metz and at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF to end 2025.
“It was a lot harder of a match than the score may seem,” said Tien, who is making his Brisbane debut. “First win of the year… I’m really happy to kickstart my Aussie swing with a win and I’m feeling good. It feels crazy that it was already a year ago the last time I was here [in Australia]. I have really great memories here, dating back to juniors, and I’m super happy to be back.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]A farewell tour?
That’s not a phrase that sits well with Stan Wawrinka as he begins his 25th and final season on the ATP Tour.
Send your well wishes and accolades and they will be received politely and with appreciation. But Switzerland’s other tennis treasure is determined to crown – rather than tarnish – one of the finest careers of the past 20 years by doing in 2026 what he does best: fighting with all his might to win as many matches as possible.
For evidence, look no further than Wawrinka’s season opener at the United Cup in Perth: Toiling for three hours and 18 minutes in baking heat, the 40-year-old rallied from a set down to upset Top 30 Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech in a third-set tie-break. It was a spirited victory – the 583rd of his career – that backed up his comments just one day earlier to ATPTour.com.
“I’m good with my decision to announce this is my last year, but I’m not doing a year just to say goodbye,” Wawrinka said. “I’m a competitor. I want to push my limit, I want to still fight against good players. I want to still win matches. I want to try to be back at the Top 100 at 40 years old.
“Throughout my career I do feel like I maximised everything I could; that always has been my goal and it’s still on for the last year. It was always to push my own limits and I achieved way more than I could dream when I was young.”
Despite more than two decades on Tour, the three-time Grand Slam champion remains a fierce competitor at his core. Why else would he grind through 29 ATP Challenger matches in 2025 as his PIF ATP Ranking [now 157] languished well outside the Top 100 and kept him off the main tour for extended periods?
“He likes the hard work and the tough lifestyle, pushing his body to the physical and mental limits,” said longtime coach Magnus Norman this week in Perth. “And he likes to perform in front of people. At the Napoli Challenger last year the crowd was really into the matches. For him it doesn’t matter if it’s a Challenger or a Grand Slam.”
Wawrinka, a winner of 16 titles, concurs: “I’m lucky enough to have had the chance to win Slams and play on the biggest stages, but just the emotion I get from playing a match, the feeling from the competition and playing in front of people is the same even when you play on the small courts. When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, the stadium doesn’t matter.”
ATP Challengers are a far cry from the centre courts of Roland Garros and the Australian and US Opens where Wawrinka inked his legacy. With Norman by his side, Wawrinka won majors for three consecutive years between 2014-2016: at Melbourne Park in 2014, Roland Garros in 2015 and in the cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2016.
Norman shared a favourite memory of Wawrinka’s final Grand Slam triumph, a four-set win over Novak Djokovic in the 2016 US Open final. As the referee called the finalists to assemble for their escort to the court, the Swede delivered an emotional speech.
“He had been playing very good tennis and I thought he would have a good match, but against Novak you’re not sure if it will be enough,” Norman said. “I told him that no matter what happens, that I’m so proud of what he had done.”
The words moved Wawrinka to tears, which then brought Norman to tears.
“The referee is calling the match and we’re both in the lockerroom crying. But it was what we needed because there had been a lot of tension. It was a little bit of a release for both of us,” Norman added.
<img alt=”2016 US Open final” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/09/03/wawrina-djokovic-us-open-2016.jpg” />
Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic embrace after the 2016 US Open final. Photo: Getty Images.
For his part, Wawrinka said that his earlier Grand Slam final victory over Djokovic at Roland Garros in 2015 remains his favourite.
“They all are really special in different ways,” he said. “Australia was where I won my first Slam [against Rafael Nadal] the year after I lost the tough match to Novak in five sets. For me that was a turning point in my career.
“But if I had to pick one, I will take the French Open. I grew up in the French part of Switzerland and when I was young, I was watching the tournament every summer. It was easy to watch French Open all day long and I had friends and family coming because it’s really close to home.
“I grew up playing on clay, so for many reasons, I will pick this one.”
Victory over Djokovic on Court Philippe-Chatrier included one of the most iconic moments in modern Grand Slam finals: an around-the-net topspin backhand winner from deep and wide behind the baseline that left fans gobsmacked.
“It’s an amazing memory of course; at that moment I was really feeling good. That was one set all and it was a break for me in the third. I was really feeling and playing the way I wanted to.
“I saw the ball. I saw the gap. I went for it.
“In that moment you just feel so good because it’s already an amazing achievement to be in the French Open final and then to hit that shot and play so well against Novak Djokovic is something I’ll always remember.”
<img alt=”Stan Wawrinka in action at Roland Garros in 2015.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/05/43/wawrinka-feature-1e.jpg” />
Wawrinka in action at the 2015 Roland Garros. Photo: Getty Images.
Wawrinka has a combined 12-63 record against the Big Three – Nadal (3-19), Federer (3-23), Djokovic (6-21) – but many of the victories came when they counted most. In Grand Slam finals he was 3-1.
“In his prime, if Stan had a good day no-one was safe,” Norman said. “He could hit winners from both sides from two to three metres behind the baseline. He was serving and moving well, was physically strong.
“He was really good in the big moments. Grand Slam champions have something that other players don’t have. I was in a Grand Slam final and the moment got to me. He could handle those situations. I think you’re born with it.”
Wawrinka beat Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open, his first major title
He beat Djokovic in the 2015 Roland Garros final and the 2016 US Open final. In 2014 he pipped the Serbian 9-7 in the fifth set of the Australian Open quarter-finals en route to the title win over Nadal, one year after Djokovic edged him 12-10 in the fifth in the Australian Open fourth round.
<img alt=”Stan Wawrinka won the Australian Open in 2014.” style=”width:100%px;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/05/32/wawrinka-feature-1d.jpg” />
Wawrinka with the trophy after winning the Australian Open in 2014. Photo: Getty Images.
Wawrinka beat Federer in the 2015 Roland Garros quarter-finals en route to the title and in the 2014 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters final, his lone Masters 1000 title.
Who was the toughest to beat?
“All three were really difficult to play against,” he said. “You can see my record against them: I lost more than 20 times to each of them, but of course Rafa especially on clay was the toughest with him hitting high forehands into my one-handed backhand, constantly putting pressure. It’s tough to generate something from there and put him under pressure. And then he had the lefty serve.”
Having played through the Big Three era, Wawrinka believes the new Big Two dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner is likely to endure, at least in the short to medium term.
“I do believe we are in the Carlos and Jannik era; they’ve been proving that for a few years their level is higher than the rest of the players,” said Wawrinka. “I’m not sure we will have a player to fight against them constantly, but for sure they’re not gonna win every single title all the time.
“I still believe they’re gonna dominate this sport for the next many years. It will be really interesting to see where they’re gonna end up in 5-10 years or 15 years. The thing is to challenge the Novak records, you need to last 15 years at least.”
For all the success on the court, Norman is equally, if not more, proud of the man Wawrinka has been off the court.
“He’s like a normal good guy who has always stuck to his values,” said the former World No. 2 and Roland Garros finalist. “He was always very humble and treated everyone the same whether he was winning or losing. I think that’s a big part of why we are together after so many years. He respects everyone whether it’s the ballkids, a World No. 1 or the cleaning lady.”
<img alt=”Stan Wawrinka and coach Magnus Norman celebrate their 2015 Roland Garros triumph.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/08/58/wawrinka-norman-french-2015.jpg” />
Stan Wawrinka and coach Magnus Norman celebrate their 2015 Roland Garros triumph. Photo: Getty Images.
Felix Auger-Aliassime carried his strong 2025 form into the new season with a commanding tie-clinching victory for Canada against China on Sunday at the United Cup in Sydney.
The 25-year-old, at a career-high No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings, overpowered Zhang Zhizhen 6-4, 6-4 with an authoritative, big-hitting performance. The win — his first opening victory of a season since 2021 — followed an impressive comeback earlier from 19-year-old Victoria Mboko, sealing an unassailable 2-0 lead for Canada.
“I can be very pleased with this first match of the year,” said Auger-Aliassime. “Tennis is about rhythm, playing important points under pressure, so you never know what to expect. I woke up this morning hoping for the best, and then I played some of my best tennis.”
Auger-Aliassime and Mboko then ensured a 3-0 sweep by teaming to defeat Xiaodi You and Rigele Te 6-1, 6-3 in the mixed doubles rubber.
Auger-Aliassime ended the 2025 season in fine form, highlighted by a semi-final run at the US Open, a title at the ATP 250 in Brussels and a last-four finish at the prestigious Nitto ATP Finals. He showed no signs of slowing down as he launched his 2026 campaign.
His serve proved especially decisive against Zhang, as he won 87 per cent (33/38) points behind his first delivery and saved the only break point he faced to level their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.
Moooood in Sydney 😍#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/xVYwuzsWvC
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 4, 2026
Earlier, Mboko rallied from a set down on her United Cup debut to defeat Lin Zhu 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 in 1 hour, 39 minutes. Zhu had won their only previous meeting, but Mboko responded with an emphatic finish.
It was Mboko’s sixth consecutive win on the WTA Tour after she ended 2025 on a five-match winning streak that earned her the second WTA Tour title of her season in Hong Kong.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Emma Raducanu withdraws from her tie against Naomi Osaka as Great Britain begin their United Cup campaign against Japan in Perth, Australia.
I was nine years old when my life changed forever.
I had a virus for a couple of weeks when I began drinking a lot of water, which was my body’s attempt to get excess sugar out of my bloodstream. I was drinking 10 to 12 litres a day so, logically, I would go to the bathroom every half an hour to flush it out.
My parents thought I was just hydrating, and that it was good for dealing with the virus. But my symptoms became worse. I was playing in a tournament one day in March 2009 and could not finish the match. When I got home that evening, I threw up in front of our front door. I went to bed and started breathing heavily, not sure what was going on. One week later, I woke up in the hospital.
Unknowingly, my body had been attacking my pancreas and killing cells. I would be awake and aware for 10 seconds and then fall back asleep for an hour. That happened all morning and I had no idea what was going on.
When I finally woke up, I came to a realisation: I was starving. I had never been so hungry in my life. Next to me was a newborn with its mother and entire family. They had the most amazing meal ever: Incredible sandwiches, jellies, breads and the best of what we have in Germany. I remember just asking the nurse, ‘Hey, could I have one?’ She was like, ‘Nope, your blood sugar is still high. You have to wait for another couple of days’.
That was the first time I heard the term blood sugar. Not long after that, I was told I had Type 1 diabetes. I would be in the hospital for about a month and have been on a journey to optimising life with the disease ever since.
# # #
<img alt=”Patrick Zahraj is a member of Team Germany at the United Cup.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/06/40/zahraj-united-cup-2026.jpg” />
This week I am at the United Cup on Team Germany, which also has another Type 1 diabetic: Alexander Zverev.
Sascha has been a big inspiration for me. He is two years older and my early contact with him as a kid was very important, especially for my parents, who had a couple of phone calls with his parents. Sascha was diagnosed with diabetes earlier than I was and already had experience to show it was possible to still chase dreams despite living with the disease.
Their family was able to explain to us that it was doable with some hints here and there. That was motivating for me to pursue the path of becoming a professional tennis player and just see that it was possible. It was so relieving for a young athlete, like I was back then.
Once Sascha went public with it in 2022, launching the Alexander Zverev Foundation, it was such a huge factor for the Type 1 community. So much work can still be done and we can motivate people and share our experiences to show the world what is possible. For the kids who are diagnosed, we can hopefully provide hope.
Despite living with this, I have still become one of the Top 250 players in the world. My dad, Radek, was a pro who reached World No. 277. Growing up, I saw him playing and competing, so chasing this dream was always in the back of my mind.
[NO 1 CLUB]When I was in the hospital for a month, my dad was coaching a couple of pros, including four-time ATP Tour doubles titlist Andre Begemann. They came to visit me in the hospital, and we built a tennis net out of big Lego blocks. It was pretty cool to see all of us coming together and just trying to pass the time with some tennis in the hospital, because there was a lot of dull downtime outside of learning about the disease.
Once I was diagnosed with diabetes, the first conversations with my doctors did not go well in terms of my tennis hopes. They were actually not that supportive in terms of playing tennis in general. The medical experts said there was high risk for severe low blood sugar among other things.
Some doctors were unable to help us and some gave us some hope that it would be possible to compete. It was a lot of trial by error. There is a lot that goes into being a professional tennis player and even more doing all that while thinking about things like glucose intake, figuring out which carbohydrates work the best and quickest for me and worrying about my blood sugar.
I went on to play college tennis at UCLA, where I was a two-time All-Pac 12 honouree and a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete. From there, I embarked on playing professional tennis.
I have an insulin pump with two attachment points in the back of the gluteus maximus. I have a sensor in my tricep for which I need to switch triceps every 10 days. I switch infusion sites every two days and insulin cartridges every four to five days.
While I am focused on my game and strategy, I also have to consider my blood sugar monitoring and levels. If the connection between my sensor and my phone is not working, or there is a technical error when I’m on court, that is a problem. All of a sudden you get to the bench and see, ‘Dang, I have no connection so I don’t know what my sugar is doing right now’. I don’t know what the trend is and that could impact me.
<img alt=”Patrick Zahraj shows some of the equipment he uses as a Type 1 diabetic.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2026/01/04/06/43/zahraj-united-cup-2026-sensor.jpg” />
I have the glucometer as a backup so I can manually check my levels and make decisions as far as what to eat and when. There is always an extra layer.
We’re out on the court so we want to manage our body for peak performance, but when our blood sugar is already high and we’re at a stage of the match like a second-set tie-break when you feel you need a bit more energy, you cannot eat at that point because your blood sugar is already high. You want to have your best performance, but you also have to manage your diabetes. It is a juggling act.
Last year I was facing Kyle Edmund at an ATP Challenger event on grass in Nottingham. With my levels, I injected manually multiple times to try to balance my numbers and nothing was working. I ended up overcompensating and suddenly I was stumbling to make it to the side of the court. I nearly blacked out and was offered medical assistance just to get off the court.
I retired from the match and the next morning was on a plane to Basel, where my dad picked me up to drive me three hours to Gstaad. I went from dealing with a diabetic episode on slick grass to competing on clay at altitude at an ATP Tour event, where I would compete in my first tour-level main draw.
Living with diabetes requires a lot of attention, but after 17 years of having it, it becomes routine. I learned a lot through the years and I’m glad I went through the whole process to get me to the point where I am right now, where I feel fully comfortable with the disease.
There are some positives, too. Diabetes has helped me build incredible discipline from a young age. Aged nine I was already calculating all my insulin shots by myself in school, which really made me independent. Otherwise, I would have needed a babysitter all the time. And then there is the mental factor of acceptance and getting past things pretty quickly to find solutions. Things don’t always go our way. You might not know your schedule, or have to deal with a flight delay or jet lag. So many things can affect your blood sugar — it is like fighting with waves, which you try to minimise the best you can. Life is never going to be a straight line.
But I want people with diabetes reading this to know that there is always a way. It might be a different one for every individual. I have different problems than Sascha has physically, for example. But what I have found over the years of having this disease is that there is always a way, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort and reach out to people in order to learn. You can transcend that lesson to life as well, but especially for the Type 1 community.
The more we share together, the more we can learn and optimise our disease together to live freely without constraints.
– As told to Andrew Eichenholz
Read More My Point first-person essays
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Naomi Osaka was originally slated for a second career meeting with Emma Raducanu on Day 3 of the 2026 United Cup, but a late lineup change handed her a new challenge in 26-year-old Katie Swan.
Osaka passed the test, though not without complications, defeating Swan 7-6 (4), 6-1 in one hour and 53 minutes on Sunday at RAC Arena. The win delivered a much-needed point for Team Japan, which was trying to keep its hopes alive in its tie with Great Britain after Billy Harris defeated Shintaro Mochizuki earlier in the day.
It marked Osaka’s first career match win at the United Cup and the first in Team Japan’s history, with the nation making its event debut this year.
“Just fighting, no matter what the score was,” said Osaka when asked what she was most pleased with. “I’ve never played her before and she’s a really tough opponent. And to have one of the first matches of the year is definitely really tough, but I’m glad to be back here. I haven’t been here since 2017, so thanks for having me.”
Victorious in Perth! 👊 pic.twitter.com/1RduaChcWq
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 4, 2026
Osaka’s serve set the tone, as she won the first 10 points on her serve and 11 of the first 12. By match end, the former World No. 1 had won 78 per cent of her first-serve points and struck six aces. The performance from the service line provided a crucial cushion given her early struggles on return, as she converted just one of 10 break points in the opening set.
Despite the loss, the match will stand as a career highlight for Swan, who has endured repeated injuries and setbacks. Despite the adversity, she entered the contest with 16 ITF singles titles — including four in 2025 — and was a girls’ singles finalist at the 2015 Australian Open.
Swan competed in the inaugural United Cup in 2023, going 2-1 in singles with wins over Nuria Parrizas Diaz and Zoe Hives, while losing to Madison Keys. Her last WTA Tour main-draw win came at the event, while her most recent tour-level main-draw appearance had come at Wimbledon in 2023, where she lost to Belinda Bencic.
The Briton battled throughout Sunday’s match, showing resolve from the opening game. She earned the first break of the match for a 4-3 lead in the first set and saved the first eight break points she faced, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to avoid a winner-take-all mixed doubles match.
Osaka broke back to level at 5-5, claimed the first-set tiebreak 7/4 and then pulled away in the second set.
“[Winning the first set] was definitely really important,” Osaka said. “And just, I guess for my confidence, trying to just build more. So yeah, I definitely appreciated winning the first set for sure.”
[ATP APP]Harris had earlier settled British nerves in the wake of Raducanu’s morning withdrawal with a rock-solid 7-6(4), 6-3 triumph against Mochizuki. The 30-year-old quickly handed his team a welcome boost with an impressive triumph against a player 29 spots above him in the PIF ATP Rankings.
“Great atmosphere… It got me through the match,” said Harris in his on-court interview. “A lot of Brits out here. Great to get the first win for the team. Some shaky bits in there, but I managed to close it out there in the end, so I was happy with that.”
Harris initially rallied from 3-5 in the opening set against Mochizuki but then failed to serve it out at 6-5. The Briton promptly delivered a rock-solid first-set tie-break showing, however, to capitalise on the inconsistencies of the World No. 99 Japanese.
With frequent motivational calls from his captain Tim Henman on the team bench, Harris completed his one-hour, 50-minute win after claiming the only break of the second set in the fourth game. It was his first tour-level triumph since he defeated Dusan Lajovic at Wimbledon last July.
“Having Tim on the bench, it’s great having advice from someone like that, so you are listening every changeover and those little bits of advice can make a difference,” said Harris.
Mochizuki was chasing Japan’s first match win of the 2026 United Cup after it fell 0-3 to Greece on Friday. However, his efforts were undermined by a wayward performance from the baseline: the 22-year-old produced 19 unforced errors in the first set alone and made just 40 per cent (27/68) of first serves overall, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
All Japanese eyes will now be on former World No. 1 Osaka, who needs to overcome World No. 276 Swan in order to keep alive Japan’s chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Joao Fonseca’s start to the 2026 ATP Tour season has been delayed by a lower back injury.
The Brazilian withdrew Sunday from the Brisbane International presented by ANZ and will be replaced by a lucky loser.
The 19-year-old former Next Gen ATP Finals champion is at a career-high No. 24 in the PIF ATP Rankings. This time last year, he won the ATP Challenger in Canberra before winning through qualifying at the Australian Open and upsetting then-World No. 9 Andrey Rublev to reach the second round.
Fonseca is next scheduled to compete at the Adelaide International, which begins 12 January.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]The 2026 ATP Challenger season begins Monday, with five tournaments taking place in opening week. The Workday Canberra International kicks off the Australian hard-court swing, with former No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings Kei Nishikori headlining the action. Nishikori, who has competed in just two tournaments since last May, begins against top seed Vit Kopriva.
Alexander Blockx and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, who both competed at the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, will meet in the opening round of the Canberra Challenger. Jeddah finalist Blockx beat the Norwegian in the semi-finals of the 20-and-under event to take a 1-0 lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Learning a language 🗣️
Ranking rise 💯
Staying fit and healthy 💪Aiming high for the season ahead…#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/9e5C645IPg
— ATP Challenger (@ATPChallenger) January 1, 2026
The Workday Canberra International is one of two Challenger 125 events this upcoming week. The Dafa News Bengaluru Open in India is also slated to take place, with Spaniard Pedro Martinez leading the draw as the top seed.
Two-time NCAA singles champion Michael Zheng is among the field at the BNC TENNIS OPEN in New Caledonia. Former World No. 19 Hyeon Chung returns to action at the Bangkok Open 1, an ATP Challenger 50 event. Briton Henry Searle, who won the 2023 Wimbledon boys’ singles event, will compete on home soil at the Lexus Nottingham Challenger.
Six continents will host ATP Challenger events across the first two months of the season, underscoring the global footprint of the circuit. With the addition of 50 new Challenger 50 tournaments this season, players across the world will have greater opportunities to compete, further strengthening the professional pathway to the ATP Tour.
View the ATP Challenger schedule
In October, the ATP announced a record $32.4 million in ATP Challenger prize money for the 2026 season, featuring an additional $5 million in singles compensation compared to 2025. Driven by the introduction of OneVision – ATP’s long-term strategic plan – ATP Challenger prize money has surged 167 per cent since 2022.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]