All time INDIAN CHALLENGER WINS

[Rajiv]

And now going through thread's earlier comments as mentioned RK has grass court challenger title, so does Vijay a 2 time finalist and a winner in the same venue some years prior to Ramesh's win

[rajitghosh]

Was it a Challenger or an Exhibition event?

[Rajiv]

Not Exhibition, but a proper tournament, proper , dates back to the late 1800's and in the late 60's early 70's when the game became Open, and with the entry of professionals in the game prize money and points were distributed, it wound up in the 90's and few years later the trio of Surbitron,Nottingham, Ilkley took over.

[rajitghosh]

I was asking about the 1986 edition. In those days there were many events that were not part of the Grand Prix or the Challenger tour but offered prize money as exhibition/ invitational events. I believe Beckenham was like that.
In fact Vijay enjoyed great success at these so-called invitational/ exhibition events. In 1975 he won the Carolinas Open beating Borg and Nastase and in 1982 he won the Gunze World Open beating Edmonson, Lendl and Sandy Meyer.
These events didn't provide any ranking points.

[sameerph]

In 1986 Ramesh beat the South African Dannie Visser to take the title, don't remember the score, but clearly remember it was a hard fought win in 3 sets and heard Paddy Feeny on BBC Saturday special, minutes after the victory eulogising Ramesh's win ,and discussing with the onsite BBC reporter's Linda Spur & Simon Reed how he fondly rembered the Sr Ramanthan as well and how striking was the similarly in the father and son's game.

This Grass Court Challenger held on a Kent Cricket field in Beckenham was popular even amongst the top rung and remember ,McEnroe and Lendl winning few years later after Ramesh won the 86 crown.

But this challenger is not shown in results on ATP tour on this page which shows historical results. This is for 1986-

ATP challenger tour results 1986

Was it called some other level.

[arjun2761]

Beckenham 1974 is shown as one of Vijay’s 16 main tour titles. I don’t think the challengers had started then so perhaps some of the 16 “ATP” titles won by Vijay would be considered as challengers today.

[rajitghosh]

Actually ATP has updated it's stats in their website. Now Vijay is credited with 15 titles.
A title he had won in Washington in 1974 that was part of the USLTA tour has not been counted. They have essentially counted the Grand Prix, WCT and ATP tours. For senior Krishnan they have considered 1 title- the Canadian Open in 1968 whereas the title he won in Stuttgart the same year has been considered a Challenger equivalent.

[sameerph]

So, updated list of challenger title winners -

Challenger singles titles by Indians-

Leander Paes 11 - 6 home, 5 away ( 2 in Asia, 1 Africa, 1 US, 1 South America)
Yuki Bhambri 7 - 3 home, 4 away ( 3 in Asia, 1 in Australia)
Somdev Devvarman 5 - 2 home, 3 away ( 2 in US, 1 in Europe)
Sumit Nagal 5 - 2 home, 3 away ( 2 in Europe, 1 in South America)
Ramesh Krishnan 4 - all away ( 3 in Asia, 1 in US)
Vijay Amritraj 2 - Away ( both in US)
Saketh Myneni 2 - 1 home, 1 away ( Asia)
Prajnesh Guneswaran 2 - 1 home, 1 away (Asia)
Mahesh Bhupathi 1 - Away (Asia)
Harsh Mankad 1 - Away (Europe)
Rohan Bopanna 1- Away (Europe)
Sashi Menon 1 - Away (US)
Ramkumar Ramanathan 1 - Away (Asia)

Total - 15 home, 28 away ( 12 in Asia, 7 in US, 5 in Europe, 2 in South America, 1 in Africa, 1 in Australia) - Total 43 titles

5 titles on grass ( 4 Leander, 1 Harsh Mankad), 4 on clay ( 3 Sumit, 1 Prajnesh), all others on hard courts.