Johnny Watterson On TennisTennis never stops. Roland Garros last week and Wimbledon in less than two weeks' time distort the world picture in much the same way the World Cup is not what normally takes place around the world in soccer. The big events are the shop windows, where dreams are made and realised, where players and teams arrive after they have made it through the qualification stages.
While world attention will rightly focus on the Queens tournament in the UK, and the third Grand Slam of the year soon after, in Wimbledon, Ireland will make its own contribution to the feeding frenzy in the sport, perhaps in the shadow of Wimbledon, but nonetheless crucially important for the game in this country.
The announcement yesterday of the Shelbourne Men's Irish Open $50,000 Challenger event, which runs in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club with qualifiers starting on Sunday July 2nd and the main draw action beginning on Monday July 3rd, is a welcome addition to the calendar and one that significantly increases the level and profile of the game here.
Just about every player who has made it to the top 10 has had to play on the Challenger circuit. When Andre Agassi fell out of the top rankings in 1997 to plummet to 141 in the world, he took a wild card in a Las Vegas Challenger in November of that year and a week later another one in a Burbank Challenger.
Agassi used the events to help him finally regain the world number one position and ultimately go on and achieve a Grand Slam.
Currently every single player in the top 10 of the ATP rankings competed in the Challenger Circuit in the early part of his career.
The circuit consists of approximately 160 events held in more than 40 countries. The total prize-money for 2006 will be over $8 million and the competition is intense.
A mix of young and up-and-coming players and those who are coming back from injury or cannot get into the bigger circuit events play Challenger competitions in the hope of earning the ATP ranking points that will qualify them to compete at the very top level.
The events range in prize-money from $25,000 to $125,000 and in the same week as Fitzwilliam hosts the Irish event, Montauban in France, Cordoba in Spain, Biella in the North of Italy and Winnetka in Illinois, USA, all have Challengers going on.
All are run under the rules and regulations of the ATP Tour and administered under the umbrella of the ATP Tour. All are assigned ATP Tour ranking points according to prize-money, the point allocations designed to provide a springboard to the ATP Tour.
The Challenger circuit also brings men's professional tennis to countries where ATP Tour events are not held.
Tennis followers in countries like Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and now Ireland can see some of the best new players in men's tennis competing for ATP points.
Not only do these tournaments give fans the opportunity to watch top-class matches, but they also provide opportunities for young local players, and in this case four Irish players, as yet undecided, who will receive wild cards.
It is where players like Italy's Daniele Bracciali and Romania's Razvan Saban, who lost in the first round of the 2005 US Open, hope to improve their ranking.
Bracciali is currently ranked 54 and Saban 121. Saban, a former Wimbledon Junior champion, has had career wins over the likes of former French Open champion and world number one Carlos Moya, while Bracciali made the third round at Wimbledon in 1998. Both are in the Dublin line-up along with Denmark's Kristian Pless, the world's leading junior in 1999.
Ireland's challenge is likely to be headed by Berkeley graduate and full-time player Conor Niland. All four Irish wild cards will be announced in the coming days.
Back to the Futures
The first of the Men's Futures event being held in Ireland starts this weekend with the qualifying event in Limerick LTC on Saturday and Sunday.
Futures events are professional competitions at a level below the Challengers. The main draw begins on Monday, with the singles finals scheduled for Saturday, 24th June.
At least six Irish players are in the main draw, with Peter Clarke and Conor Niland in the first round as direct entries.
Tennis Ireland have also allocated four main wild cards - to David O'Connell, Tristan Farron Mahon, John McGahon and Eoin Heavey.
