Decade In Review: Challenger By The Numbers

Youngest Winners
Felix Auger-Aliassime led the youth movement in the 2010s. At the age of 16 years and 10 months, not only did the Canadian become the youngest winner of the decade – in Lyon in 2017 – but the eighth-youngest in Challenger history.

The Copa Sevilla was home to two of the seven youngest winners of the decade, with 17-year-olds Casper Ruud and Auger-Aliassime going back-to-back in 2016-17. Same with the Sparkassen Open in Braunschweig, as Alexander Zverev and Nicola Kuhn triumphed in 2014 and 2017 respectively.

In Good Company
Just last month, Jannik Sinner became the second-youngest player to claim three titles in a single season, behind only Richard Gasquet. He prevailed in Bergamo, Lexington and Ortisei in 2019.

Auger-Aliassime, Sinner and Taylor Fritz put themselves on an exclusive list, joining just eight other players in winning multiple titles at age 17 & under. They include Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro.

Auger-Aliassime and Hyeon Chung joined Gasquet, Tomas Berdych, Mario Ancic and Guillermo Coria as the only players to win at least four titles at the age of 18 & under.

On The Map
The Americans dominated the decade, as the United States led all countries with 129 total titles. Argentina was a close second with 122 crowns. France (99), Spain (98), Germany (91), Italy (90) and Australia (76) rounded out the leading nations.

A country boasted 20 winners in a season for just the third time in Challenger history. In 2016, Argentina featured Facundo Bagnis (6), Guido Andreozzi (2), Renzo Olivo (2), Diego Schwartzman (2), Horacio Zeballos (2), Nicolas Kicker (2), Carlos Berlocq, Leonardo Mayer, Agustin Velotti and Maximo Gonzalez as champions.

In addition, 10 countries celebrated their first winners. They were Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria), Ricardas Berankis (Lithuania), Attila Balazs (Hungary), Malek Jaziri (Tunisia), Victor Estrella Burgos (Dominican Republic), Jurgen Zopp (Estonia), Radu Albot (Moldova), Darian King (Barbados), Wu Di (China) and Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador). Also, Hugo Dellien became Bolivia’s first winner since 1983.

The Winners’ Circle
At the age of 39 years and seven months, Ivo Karlovic became the oldest champion ever with his title in Calgary in 2018. And just last month, he became the first 40-year-old finalist in Houston.

Max Purcell became the second-lowest ranked winner of all-time, lifting his maiden trophy in Gimcheon, Korea in 2016. The 18-year-old was sitting at No. 762 in the ATP Rankings at the time.  

Sergiy Stakhovsky saved the most match points in a Challenger final, denying a total of seven against Yen-Hsun Lu in Seoul in 2016.

Yuichi Sugita became the only player to win ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour titles on grass in a single season. He triumphed in Antalya and Surbiton in 2017.

Grega Zemlja became the only player to win Challenger titles on hard, clay and grass in a single season. In 2012, the Slovenian prevailed in Nottingham (grass), Anning (clay) and Beijing (hard) in less than two months.

Fast Facts
-Felix Auger-Aliassime became the youngest player to qualify for a Challenger main draw, at the age of 14 years and seven months (Drummondville 2015). And a few months later, he would become the youngest to win a match, reaching the quarter-finals in nearby Granby, Canada.

-Stefan Kozlov reached his first final at the ripe age of 16 years and eight months, in Sacramento in 2014. It made him the eighth-youngest finalist in Challenger history.

-David Goffin, Denis Istomin and Janko Tipsarevic registered the longest win streaks of the decade, with each player claiming 20 victories in a row. Goffin did so in 2014, scoring a record 36 consecutive sets won.

-Former Top 10 stars David Ferrer and Mikhail Youzhny claimed Challenger titles in the twilight of their careers. Ferrer’s victory in Monterrey 2018 came 16 years and one month after his most recent crown – the longest gap between titles in Challenger history (Manerbio 2002 to Monterrey 2018). Youzhny’s gap of 15 years and five months is the second-longest ever (Samarkand 2000 to Eckental 2015).

-It was an impressive decade for Argentina, as Carlos Berlocq set the record for most matches won in a single season (57 in 2010), while Facundo Bagnis secured the most titles in a single season (six in 2016).

-Both the longest final and the shortest final of all time were registered in the the past decade. After three hours and 31 minutes, Somdev Devvarman defeated Daniel Nguyen in Winnetka in 2015. And just a few months ago, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga routed Dudi Sela in Cassis after a mere 43 minutes.