The margins are razor thin between the ATP Challenger Tour and Tour-level players.

While every tennis player dreams of competing under the bright lights and on big stages, they must first pave their pathway on the Challenger Tour. Tennis legends like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic all started on the Challenger circuit before embarking on illustrious careers.

This season, players such as Holger Rune, Wu Yibing, and Jack Draper enjoyed great success at not only Challenger Tour events, but also at the season’s four Grand Slams.

ATPTour.com reviews five players who went from Challengers to enjoying a breakthrough moment at a major in 2022.

Holger Rune
Coming into the season, the Danish teen was outside the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and was still seeking his first Grand Slam main draw victory. It didn’t take Rune long to rise to a career-high 10 in November following a standout year.

Rune was one of just nine teenagers to collect a Challenger title this year. In April, the-then 18-year-old triumphed at the Sanremo Challenger, where he dropped just one set en route to the title and defeated Italian youngster Francesco Passaro in the final.

Passaro (left) and Rune at the 2022 Sanremo Challenger trophy presentation. Credit: Sanremo Challenger

Only one man has earned more Challenger titles than Rune before his 19th birthday: Richard Gasquet (7). Rune, who is a five-time Challenger champion, was one of six men to claim a Challenger and Tour-level title in 2022.

A month after winning the Challenger 80 event in Italy, Rune collected his first Tour-level crown (Munich) and was a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros, where he upset fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Wu Yibing
After being sidelined for three years due to injuries and the pandemic, the 23-year-old enjoyed a career-best season that earned him a nomination for the ATP Comeback Player Of The Year.

Wu went on a 15 match-winning streak at the Challenger-level and collected three consecutive titles: Orlando, Rome, Indianapolis. The Chinese star carried his momentum into his Grand Slam debut at Flushing Meadows, where he and countryman Zhang Zhizhen battled through qualifying to become the first Chinese men to compete in the US Open main draw in the Open Era.

Wu Yibing is crowned champion at the 2022 Orlando Challenger. Credit: Orlando Open

The Hangzhou native reached the third round, where he faced defending champion Daniil Medvedev under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Medvedev went on to win in straight sets but Wu’s run at the US Open will be remembered as a major milestone in Chinese tennis.

“It’s been a tough few years for me,” Wu told ATPTour.com in August. “I really suffered from injuries and Covid in China. It seems like I can still play a little bit of tennis. I’m happy about what I did [at the US Open]. I love the people here, the crowd. Many Chinese people came to support, I love it.”

Jack Draper
Nobody finished the year with a better winning percentage on the Challenger Tour than Draper. The 20-year-old boasted a 24-4 Challenger match-winning record and collected a season-leading four Challenger titles (tied w/ Pedro Cachin): Forli-2, Forli-4, Forli-5, and Saint-Brieuc. The lefty cracked the Top 100 for the first time this summer amidst a quick rise on the ATP Tour.

Jack Draper triumphs at the Saint-Brieuc Challenger. Credit: Philippe Kermoal

Shortly after earning his maiden Grand Slam main-draw victory at his home tournament, Wimbledon, Draper found success on the North American hard courts, including at the US Open, where he stunned sixth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round.

Tim Van Rijthoven
In February, the Dutchman advanced through qualifying en route to a runner-up finish at the Forli-4 Challenger (l. Draper). A few months later, Van Rijthoven won the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where he upset the Top-3 seeded players: Taylor Fritz, Auger-Aliassime, and Medvedev. Van Rijthoven became one of six men since 2007 to win an ATP Tour title before being crowned champion at the Challenger level.

The 25-year-old’s grass court success continued at the All England Club. Van Rijthoven reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and pushed eventual champion Novak Djokovic to four sets.

Tim van Rijthoven in action at Wimbledon. Credit: Adrian Dennis/Getty Images

At the season’s final Slam, Van Rijthoven won a dramatic opening round five-setter. The Dutchman rallied from two sets to love down and saved seven match points to defeat Zhang. Van Rijthoven lost in the next round to eventual finalist Casper Ruud.

Carlos Alcaraz
Although the Spaniard didn’t compete at the Challenger level in 2022, his rapid rise from the Challenger Tour to Grand Slam champion won’t soon be forgotten.

Alcaraz, who is the youngest year-end No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, found early success on the Challenger Tour. A four-time Challenger titlist, Alcaraz cracked the Top 100 for the first time following his title at the Oeiras Challenger in May 2021. The 19-year-old also collected the title at the 2020 Alicante, Barcelona, and Trieste Challengers.

“There are a lot of points at stake at the Challenger level,” Alcaraz told ATPTour.com after winning the Trieste Challenger. “To play at such a high level against really good players… It’s good preparation for when I compete at the biggest tournaments.”

Even the highest-ranked player in the sport began his professional journey on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Carlos Alcaraz lifts his maiden Grand Slam trophy in New York City. Credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Rafael Nadal announced Monday that Gustavo Marcaccio has joined his coaching team ahead of the 2023 ATP Tour season.

In an Instagram post sharing the news, Nadal said that Argentina’s Marcaccio has worked at his academy since April 2021, calling him “a good addition to the team”. “It will surely help us a lot to continue on the path,” Nadal posted in Spanish, looking forward to the new year.

Marcaccio previously coached countryman Guido Pella from 2016-18 and has been the sub-captain for the Argentina Davis Cup team since 2018. He has also worked with Argentines Juan Monaco and Maximo Gonzalez, as well as Ecuador’s Giovanni Lapentti in the past. On the Hologic WTA Tour, Marcaccio has coached Svetlana Kuznetsova and Paula Ormaechea.

A former college player at Arizona State University, he reached a career-high of No. 284 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2004.

Nadal’s announcement comes three days after the Spaniard shared that longtime coach Francisco Roig was leaving his team to “start a new personal project as a coach”. 

It was a historic season for Carlos Alcaraz, whose accomplishments in 2022 include winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title, his maiden Grand Slam championship and climbing to World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

To wrap his year, ATPTour.com asked the Spaniard for the best, biggest, coolest and craziest things to happen to him this season.

Carlos’ Biggest Thing: Ending The Year As World No. 1
Alcaraz at the Nitto ATP Finals was recognised as the youngest year-end No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (since 1973). The 19-year-old became the first teen to accomplish the feat.

“It means a lot to me,” Alcaraz said. “To get this trophy, the World No. 1, to be part of tennis history along with a lot of legends, for me is an amazing feeling.”

^{Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour}
Carlos’ Best Thing: Winning The US Open & Reaching World No. 1
Fans and analysts alike had Alcaraz on their radar well before the start of the 2022 season, but few could have predicted how quickly he soared. By defeating Casper Ruud in the US Open final, he claimed his maiden major crown and with it, the No. 1 Pepperstone ATP Ranking.

“It’s crazy for me. I’ve never thought that I was going to achieve something like that at 19 years old. So everything [has] come so fast,” Alcaraz said. “For me it’s unbelievable. It’s something I dreamed since I was a kid, since I started playing tennis. Of course, lifting this trophy today is amazing for me.”

^{Photo Credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images}
Carlos’ Coolest Thing: Winning The Mutua Madrid Open In Front Of Family & Friends
Alcaraz claimed five of his six tour-level titles this season. The one that hit closest to home — literally — was his victory at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Spaniard defeated three of the top four players in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings — Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev — en route to the trophy in front of his family and friends.

“I am a very familial kid. I have been a kid that whenever I can, I’d rather be at home than somewhere else,” Alcaraz said after his win. “For me to celebrate this title, which is very special, with my family, with my cousins, uncles, grandparents, all my family in general, it’s very, very special.”

Carlos’ Craziest Thing: A Coach’s Surprise
When Alcaraz advanced to the Miami Open presented by Itau final, it was a special moment. In 2021 on his Miami debut, the Spaniard lost in the first round. One year later he was into his first ATP Masters 1000 championship match.

The only missing piece was his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who was home mourning the loss of his father. Throughout the tournament, Alcaraz paid homage to Ferrero and his family. The teen was pushing through for him.

“After this happened, it was tough for me, it was tough for him,” Ferrero said of not being in Miami. “And even like this he could stay at the same level and trying… to stay even more focussed.”

^{Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images}
The night before the final, Alcaraz received a shock when he turned around in the hotel lobby to see his coach standing there. The pair shared an emotional embrace, just as they did the following day after Alcaraz clinched the title.

“Juan Carlos [is a] very important person for me. On [the] professional side, on the personal side, he helps me a lot on both sides,” Alcaraz said after his victory. “When we are together, we will talk about everything in life, everything in our sport, about football, as well. I mean Juan Carlos, I consider him a coach and a friend as well. So I can talk to him about everything.”

It all starts and ends with the return landing back in the court.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of return points won by the year-end Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings when the return was successfully put back in play highlights a key strategic advantage that Novak Djokovic enjoyed over his closest rivals.

Djokovic was the peak performer at winning both first and second serve points when his return was put back in play. The data set comes from the ATP Serve & Return Tracker and includes 13,215 first and second serve returns from the 2022 season.

First Serve Return Points Won When Return In Play (Top 10 Average = 45.9%)

Imagine an opponent making a powerful first serve and Djokovic successfully blocking it back in play. Who is now favoured to win the point?

Incredibly, Djokovic is.

Djokovic (50.3 per cent) was the only Top 10 player to break through the 50 per cent threshold and win more points than he lost when returning first serves back in play. This statistic helps explain what makes him one of the greatest returners in the history of our sport.

As a player who has always done things his own way on the tennis court, Nick Kyrgios appreciates the importance of innovation in the game. It comes as no surprise that the Australian is looking forward to the inaugural edition of the United Cup.

“I think it’s just a great event to have,” said Kyrgios as he prepares to lead the host nation at the new mixed teams event to be held from 29 December to 8 January. “An event where females and males come together as one to represent their nation, I think that’s incredibly important, and for the fans to see their favourite female players and male players come together and play for their country, [with] all the best athletes from around the world. I think it’s a very special, special event.”

The teams competition will kick off the 2023 season on both the ATP and WTA Tours, with 18 nations competing in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. As Team Australia’s leading men’s singles player, Canberra-born Kyrgios is set for a pair of blockbuster clashes against Team Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie and Team Spain’s Rafael Nadal in Sydney, the city he now calls home.

“There’s nothing better, to play the Australian summer is one of my favourite times of the year,” said Kyrgios. “Obviously being home, but being able to play in Sydney, in front of the home fans, my family, my friends, there’s nothing more that I love.

“To be honest I’ve never really played that great in Sydney, but I’m hoping I’m going to change that narrative at the start of the year. Just playing in Australia in general is special. The Tour is a long grind and it’s rarely in Australia, so I’m definitely not going to take it for granted.”

Each United Cup tie will comprise two men’s and two women’s singles matches and one mixed doubles match to be played across two days. Kyrgios is a top-class doubles option for Team Australia’s co-captains, Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur, with the 27-year-old’s high-energy performances alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis making the pair crowd favourites wherever they play on the ATP Tour. Kyrgios predicts more of the same when male and female stars team up at the United Cup.

“What I love about mixed doubles is [what it brings] for the fans,” said Kyrgios. “To see some of the best females in the world playing with some of the best males in the world, I think it provides some really good entertainment… We’ve seen some iconic doubles pairs over the last decade.”

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal headlined ATP Tour stars who reacted to the epic FIFA World Cup Final on social media Sunday, when Lionel Messi led Argentina past France for the trophy.

Federer wrote on Instagram, “Fairytale stuff Argentina! ⚽️ Time and time again you @leomessi have redefined greatness. It’s a privilege to watch you. Congrats Leo & 🇦🇷 . Special and historic 👏🏼🏆.”

 

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A post shared by Roger Federer (@rogerfederer)

Nadal posted on Instagram stories congratulating both the Argentines and French on the classic match. “Enjoy it champions,” he wrote in one of his posts.

Argentines, led by Juan Martin del Potro, quickly took to social media to celebrate their country’s victory.

FELICITACIONESSS LEOOO!!! 🐐
FELICITACIONESSS SELECCIÓN!!! 🇦🇷
GRACIAS POR ESTA GRAN ALEGRÍA QUE NOS DIERON!!!
LA FOTO QUE TODO EL MUNDO NECESITABA VER!!! 🙏🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/tTFIfpU3rq

— Juan M. del Potro (@delpotrojuan) December 18, 2022

🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/GkE2UWO5nD

— diego schwartzman (@dieschwartzman) December 18, 2022

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray, who praised Messi throughout the tournament, shared his thoughts on the global superstar once more: “Is Messi the best athlete of all time? Forget just football,” Murray wrote. “What a man.”

Is messi the best athlete of all time? Forget just football. What a man.

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) December 18, 2022

Casper Ruud, who was wearing an Argentina jersey with his name on it during the championship, also congratulated the winners.

 

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True tennis fanatics find joy in sharing any random fact or record that they can recite from memory. The 2022 ATP Challenger Tour season held no shortage of historic moments that can be shared as your next trivia question.

After 11 months of nonstop tennis, ATPTour.com takes a deep dive into the facts and figures from the 2022 Challenger Tour season.

Halys Held Most Wins
For the second straight year, a Frenchman topped the Challenger match wins leaderboard. This season, Quentin Halys was nearly unstoppable as he collected a 43-10 record on the Challenger Tour.

The 26-year-old reached seven Challenger finals, including in Pau, Lille, and Ismaning, where he captured the title. Halys finished the year at a career-high 64 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. 

Title Leaders
Pedro Cachin and Jack Draper finished with a season-leading four Challenger titles. While the Argentine Cachin competed in seven finals, he was crowned champion in Madrid, Prague, Todi, and Santo Domingo. Draper’s early-season surge helped pave the path of his graduation to Tour-level tournaments and qualification for the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals. The Briton triumphed at the Forli-2, Forli-4, Forli-5, and Saint-Brieuc Challengers.

Teen Titans
Nine teenagers broke through to triumph at the Challenger level. China’s Shang Juncheng won the Lexington Challenger to become the youngest (17 years, 6 months) Challenger champion of 2022. The Beijing native is the youngest Chinese champion in Challenger Tour history. Luca Nardi and Dominic Stricker were the only teenagers to win multiple Challenger titles this season.

Other teen champions include Luca Van Assche, Holger Rune, Hamad Medjedovic, Francesco Maestrelli, Flavio Cobolli, and Zachary Svajda.

Biggest Movers To Top 100
Ben Shelton, who was a six-time Challenger finalist this year, led the way as one of the four biggest movers to the Top 100.

Title Leaders By Country
Players from 38 countries won titles this year. Argentines collected a historic 23 Challenger titles, which surpassed their own record for most titles by a country in a single season (20). French players, who combined for 22 titles, were not far behind.

Valentin Vacherot, who won the Nonthaburi Challenger, became the second player from Monaco to win a title and the first since 2004.

ATP Tour & Challenger Tour Winners
Borna Coric and Holger Rune showed their dominance at the Challenger level and on the ATP Tour in 2022.

Coric, who won the Parma Challenger in June, upset three Top-10 players en route to winning the title in Cincinnati to become the first player since 1993 to win a Challenger and an ATP Masters 1000 title in the same season. And then it was the Danish teen’s turn in Bercy.

Rune, 19, claimed the Sanremo Challenger in April before rising to three Tour-level titles, including the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris.

Four other players also were crowned champions at both levels: Yoshihito Nishioka, Marc-Andrea Huesler, Francisco Cerundolo, and Lorenzo Musetti.

Doubles Titles History
In the span of six months, British duo Julian Cash and Henry Patten went from scrambling to gain entry into Challenger tournaments to finishing the season with a record-setting 10 titles.

In May, Cash and Patten were ranked outside the Top 300 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. The former college standouts made quick progress as they collected titles on all three surfaces and surpassed the previous Challenger doubles titles record, eight, which was set in 2012 by twin brothers from Thailand, Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana.

Fast Facts

• A total of 52 players collected their maiden title this season. Shang, 17, was the youngest of the bunch while 28-year-old Alexander Ritschard was the oldest player to win his first title in 2022.
• #NextGenATP stars lit up the Challenger Tour this year. Players born in 2001 or later combined for 40 titles.
• A single-season record 22 players advanced through qualifying en route to capturing a Challenger title.
• Longest final: Genaro Alberto Olivieri and Tomas Martin Etcheverry tied the record for the longest Challenger final. After three hours, 31 minutes, Olivieri defeated his countryman 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Montevideo Challenger.
• Shortest final: Hamad Medjedovic needed just 48 minutes to down Zhang Zhizhen 6-1, 6-2 at the Luedenscheid Challenger.
• Youngest final: Hungary’s Filip Misolic, 20, defeated 17-year-old Mili Poljicak to win the Zagreb Challenger. In Granby, 20-year-old Gabriel Diallo defeated Chinese teen Shang Juncheng in the championship match.
• Oldest winner: Fernando Verdasco won the Monterrey Challenger to become the season’s oldest champion (38 years, 3 months). Only Ivo Karlovic has won a Challenger at an older age: 39 years, 7 months (2018 Calgary).
• Four players saved at least one match point in a Challenger final: Wu Yibing (6) in Indianapolis, Jack Draper (4) at the Forli-5 event, Emilio Gomez (4) in Salinas, and Zizou Bergs (1) in Ilkley.
• Guido Andreozzi became the lowest-ranked champion since 2000. The Argentine was No. 901 when he triumphed at the Temuco Challenger.
• Ben Shelton became the youngest player in Challenger history to win three titles in as many weeks (Charlottesville, Knoxville, Champaign).
• At the Orleans Challenger, Gregoire Barrere became the fifth player since 2010 to defeat four Top-100 players en route to a title.
• Francisco and Juan Manuel Cerundolo became the first pair of brothers to win titles in back-to-back seasons.
• A record-setting 184 tournaments were played across 38 countries.
• The Tampere Open, which is the longest-running event on the Challenger Tour, became the first tournament to celebrate its 40-year anniversary.

Coaches have for years drilled into budding tennis players and professionals that serving to the backhand provides a stronger chance of winning second-serve points. In fact, it is clear that this tactic is the norm on the ATP Tour. Fifty per cent of serves have been directed to the backhand corner and 35 per cent to the body – mainly to the backhand side – leaving only 15 per cent of serves delivered to the forehand.

The thinking is simple: Serving to the backhand provides a safer option when sending down a slower delivery on the second serve. Naturally, forehand returns are more dangerous, so a high ball to the backhand provides a better chance of neutralising the opponent’s return, while reducing the risk of double faulting.

Animation 1: Serve Zone Trajectories on second serves to Deuce court: Win % and In %

However, the growth of increasingly sophisticated data and analysis of each and every action in the sport of tennis undermines the logic behind this long-held belief.

ATP players win 51 per cent of points when serving to the forehand corner versus just 49 per cent when serving to the backhand corner.

In other words, primarily directing the second serve to the backhand of an ATP opponent typically reduces the chances of winning the point. This information is derived from detailed analysis for nearly 150 right-handed ATP players with at least 1,000 second serves to right-handed opponents over a 10-year period.

Table 1: High frequency and second-serve win per centage to forehand and backhand corners of 150 right-handed ATP players with at least 1,000 second serves to right-handed opponents over a 10-year period.

What’s more, well-placed deuce-side second serves to the forehand corner generate 8.5 per cent more points won than well-placed serves to the backhand corner of the same service box. Perhaps even more surprisingly, second serves to the forehand corner in the deuce court lead to eight per cent more unreturned serves and lead servers to win 17 per cent more deuce-side return points in shorter rallies of five or fewer shots.

Animation 2: Win % heatmap for placement of second serves to Deuce court

All of this goes to highlight the growing importance of accessing and understanding detailed data analysis on Tour to enable players to leverage every marginal gain available to them. This is why Tennis Data Innovations is committed to delivering detailed tracking data on every court across the ATP Tour in 2023, to shed light on the most effective tactics and strategies in tennis.

And what does all this mean in practice? Well, just as we have seen with the inexorable rise of three-pointers in the NBA driven by crunching the data, so we are seeing the second serve to the forehand rise, increasing from 15 per cent in 2012 to 22 per cent in 2022 (a 47 per cent jump).

Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev are two players who have embraced data analysis and who often serve to the forehand on their second serve on both sides of the court with success.

However, other players have been slower to embrace the insights provided by data analytics and we see a number who rarely serve to the forehand. Not surprisingly, they are missing out on crucial points.

Grigor Dimitrov, as an example, may have gained a significant number of points by serving to the forehand corner 25 per cent of the time instead of 10 per cent. The five per cent differential gained on those second serves could have led to several additional matches being won in the course of a season, such are the fine margins in our sport.

In real terms, the difference in Pepperstone ATP Rankings points and prize money foregone by an over-reliance on serving to the backhand could be sizeable.

Table 2: Low frequency and second-serve win percentage to forehand and backhand corners. Date set of 150 right-handed ATP players with at least 1,000 second serves to right-handed opponents over a 10-year period.

Of course, we should not assume that pushing more second serves to the forehand will automatically increase the win per centage on all of those points. There is undoubtedly an element of surprise with serves to the forehand side currently that underpins its statistical advantage – built on the ingrained expectation of more serves being delivered to the other corner. This raises the question of how much more ATP players should serve to the forehand on second serve? Most players would benefit significantly if they served to the forehand at least 15-20 per cent more than they currently do.

One reason that second serves to the forehand have such a high win per centage is that they are surprising to the returner. Of course, as the per centage of serves by a player to the forehand increases, the win per centage decreases. Our analysis shows that increasing the proportion of serves to the forehand does not decrease the per centage of points won by very much. And more variation in second-serve location will deliver an increase in the win per centage of serves that continue to go to the backhand.

Given ever-improving racquets, string, and training technologies, which lead to faster and more accurate serves, we believe the per centage of serves to the forehand on second serve will continue to rise, with the expectation that one day we will see something closer to parity between the two sides.

Until then, we’ll likely continue to see an enlightened group of players and coaches take advantage of these marginal gains. In isolation, they may not seem like much, but in a sport where winning 51 per cent of the points will generally win you the match, these fine margins can be what separates success from failure.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series in which Golden Set Analytics and TDI are looking at the increasing prominence and importance of deeper tennis data in helping us all better understand the dynamics of the sport, whether as players, coaches, fans or administrators.