ATP Challenger Tour

I don't want to speak for you or for Black people, but for me personally, it is nice to have some representation, and it is nice to see someone who looks like you, has some commonality with you.

I've talked about some of the openly gay male players who are playing this week in a Challenger.

Right.

And it is nice to see that.

He came out at the end of 2024.

And then Mika Brunold, who says that João, uh, inspired him to come out.

Um, Last year, they played in the final of the Challenger.

It was just really a cool moment.

Uh, yeah.

I mean, no, obviously, Taylor, we know that there's different types of Wilson US Open balls, uh, whether that's at the Wils- at the US Open or even in the Challengers.

Um-

Yeah

...

the balls we're playing with in matches.

I think that's what a lot of the players at the Challengers and Futures were saying.

With the dead US Open balls, it was hurting their arms-

Um, they then lost to, I don't know who won the tournament, but you know, there's a lot of pairs who could win that week.

Um, Being seeded is, you know, I start these Challengers events and beat a lot of seeds early on.

You have to.

And that doesn't change.

You know, if you look at actually the Challengers, the one, two, fives before US Open, I don't think any seeds were left by the quarters or semifinals.

It's such a tight run thing.

And OK, some weeks you get the seeds wins.

It's quite, uh, lengthy, and we might sort of just, uh, bottle that all up, uh, together.

Uh, those on the Challenger circuit who won, uh, titles across, uh, the weekend.

Facundo Diaz Acosta, the Argentine, 25 years of age, who's on a roll, uh, this year.

Sixth ATP Challenger title for 2026.

So he's gone 49 and 18 this year.

His 12th ATP Challenger title across his career.

Now think about this.

When you grow up in Argentina, you play a lot of tennis on clay.

Same story, a bad year.

Did win in Cancun, though, uh, recently in Challenger Tour, so he's been playing a bit better, but still beat Hurkacz in a competitive four sets.

Beat Shapovalov in four, who's been underwhelming all year as well.

Beat Tsitsipas in straight sets, who's also been up and down.

But America's investing a lot more, it seems.

There's a lot more pathways, a lot more events played in America, whether that's on the Challenger Tour, the Futures Tour.

You know, there's a lot more access for players to get to these high-level events rather than having to travel halfway across the world.

So...

If Novak Djokovic wants to, you know, we've discussed it previously on the podcast.

If he enjoys playing tennis and he wants to be playing Challenger Tour events five years from now and still thinks that's fun, then it's not for us.

Like Novak Djokovic doesn't have to, or any other athlete, doesn't have to sort of protect their legacy for their fans.

And I hate when people say, oh, it's sad to see someone so great losing to this player or that player or losing in those games or making those mistakes.

We saw Coivin and Ben James this year.

So if you're the 15th best college guy, yeah, you can go grind on Latin America or Corn Fairy or the Challenger Tour.

It's not the Challenger Tour.

There is a Challenger Tour.

What is the second tier of PGA Tour?

Yeah, the Challenge Tour.