$54K Da Nang Challenger, Vietnam- Jan 7-13, 2019

[sameerph]

Mukund won in straight sets.

Today's summarised results -

[R1] (Q) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,581T) l. Gerard Granollers (ESP,414) 26 46

[R2] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,295) d. (WC) Shinzi Hazava (JPN,545) 61 64
[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND,392) l. (16) Denis Yevseyev (KAZ,359) 16 26

Very comfortable for Manish.
No points for qualifying anymore so needs another win to make this week count.

Yes, no ATP points for Manish this week. But, he does get 30 ITF points which will take him upto 156 in the ITF rankings. If he cannot get his ATP ranking up faster, he can aim to take his ITF ranking up inside top 50-75 which will put him into ATP challenger main draws on that. His current ITF rankings may be good enough to play challenger qualies at least in Asia.

[PKBasu]

Mukund won 61 64, and plays Yevyesev in R3 (PQF). There are just 3 points for making R2, and 7 for making R3.

No points or money for qualifying in. Challengers have become like Futures. Not quite sure how this is going to widen the pool of tennis professionals making a credible living.

[suresh]

Not quite sure how this is going to widen the pool of tennis professionals making a credible living.

The attempt is to widen the pool of players who can earn a living playing tennis. My guess is that the hope is that most challenger players should be able to do that. That would make the number around 600-700.

[PKBasu]

At Da Nang, only the quarterfinalists (and beyond) make more than US$1000 (US$1460 to be precise). So, they are the only ones who will break even after travel expenses. Not a viable formula to me...

[sameerph]

No points or money for qualifying in. Challengers have become like Futures. Not quite sure how this is going to widen the pool of tennis professionals making a credible living.

Qualfiers were not getting any money in earlier system as well after winning 3 matches in qualifying. They used to get first round loser's money though -$520 for same level challenger. Now, there is only 1 round of qualies and someone who qualifies and loses in first round gets $260. Second round loser gets $520 which is same as the first round loser earlier. So,essantially in terms of both points and money, first round in main draw is second or final round qualifying in earlier system. From second round onwards, points and prize money are exactly the same as last year first round onwards.

So, at least gives some money ( minor) to those winning a match in qualifying unlike last yeara and now it is mandatory for all challengers to give hospitality earlier.

Also it appears that ATP will now give travel grants for challenger players ranked between 151-300 although not clear to what extent.

But, overall appears a better proposition for challenger level players ranked inside 300.

[Sin Hombre]

ATP's objective is to reduce the number of professional players to around 600 and to ensure that the first 250 or so are breaking even.

[prasen9]

It is bizarre that the ATP does not mandate all tournaments (say above $25k) pay for or provide boarding for all the players. That way poorer players will be able to afford it a bit more. Right now, you only can play if you are rich or have a rich country or private sponsor. If we pay for the expenses to whatever level is feasible before paying prize money, we would have more players able to afford it. And, if more players are competing, the quality will increase.

[sameerph]

It is bizarre that the ATP does not mandate all tournaments (say above $25k) pay for or provide boarding for all the players.

Now from this year, all challengers have mandatory hospitality. So, in effect all the tournaments above $25K do have to provide boarding now.

I think in the new system those who are really talented can have quicker rise to the higher level as top ITF ranked players also directly get into challengers. They want to discourage the players who keep on playing lower level tournaments despite having a ranking of playing higher level tournaments. And those who are lower level players will find it difficult to sustain and will be weeded out gradually.

[prasen9]

Ah, great. But, first round losers get no money at all in the lowest challenger level?

[sameerph]

Ah, great. But, first round losers get no money at all in the lowest challenger level?

First round losers get $260 now. Only 2 players who lose in the first qualifying round do not get anything. Earlier there used to be 32 player qualifying and except for the 4 qualifiers, none used to get any money. So, that number ( of not earning anything) is reduced from 28 to 4. It seems they want to discourage players travelling to ATP challenger hoping to qualify and losing early and not getting anything.

[prasen9]

That's good. $260 is not much though to cover airfare, etc. While raising money for the tournaments is an issue too, maybe those four hapless people should be given $250 and first round folks given $500 or something like that.

If two players get nothing, then how is the number not getting nothing reduced to four? Not two?

[sameerph]

It is not 2 ( not getting anything), not 4. My mistake.

Yes, $260 is not much at all. But, till last year the players were not getting anything for winning 1 match ( or 2 matches in qualifying). Now, at least get this much for winning a match in qualifying.

Still as of now those 2 fellow and 16 first round losers ( who get $260) would not be breaking even for a one week trip to challenger. For those getting 1 win in main draw, it is $520. With hospitality and some travel grants for those ranked in top 300, they may break even. If it is a 2 week trip at nearby located challlengers, then their bigger airfare cost will get spread over and if they do well in at least 1 of the 2 weeks, it will be enough to break even.

[prasen9]

I suppose if you have $25k and have to spread it over 36 players, then you cannot really give players much. So, $4160 goes to the bottom 18 (+2 who get nothing) players. The other $21k is divided up among the rest of the 16. Which is about $1.3k on average. Of course the winner will get more. Etc.

On the whole, this change makes sense to me.

So players who are playing the $25k are more or less "amateurs" in that they cannot really make a living unless they are regularly going deep.

[sameerph]

The lowest level challenger prize money now ( like this challenger ) is $54K ( not $25K) and player field in 50. So, your are correct that bottom 18 get $4160. Other 32 get $50K, an average of $1.5 K. The winner gets $7,200 and runner up $4,240 which is pretty good. As someone said, if one goes to QF ($1460) then one can make money.

[jaydeep]

Sumit needed two tie-breaks to overcome the challenge of Bala ... Both players failed to break other's serve but Bala created more chances ... He had a 6 breakpoints, 3 each in both sets, and Sumit had a couple of chances ... But Sumit played better tie-break, he won the first tie-break without losing a single point ... In the second set, he was two set points down at 4-6, but he won next 4 points including winning 2 points on Bala's serve.

At $54K+H Vietnam Tennis Open 2018, Da Nang City, Vietnam

[R2] (11) Sumit Nagal (IND,340) bt N. Sriram Balaji (IND,401) 76(0) 76(6)