The 2012 ATP Challenger Tour Finals was a tennis tournament played at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, between November 27 and December 1, 2012. It was the second edition of the event. It was run by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and was part of the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour. The event took place on indoor hard courts. It served as the season ending championships for players on the ATP Challenger Tour. The seven best players of the season and a wild card awardee qualified for the event and were split into two groups of four. During this stage, players competed in a round robin format (meaning players played against all the other players in their group). The two players with the best results in each group progressed to the semifinals where the winners of a group faced the runners-up of the other group. This stage, however, was a knock out stage.

Qualification 2012 ATP Year-To-Date Challenger Rankings ATP ranking2 #1 Seed2 Player Points Tours 1 3 562 11 64 2 2 510 13 63 3 483 12 4 5 471 15 98 5 459 16 6 450 14 7 445 20 8 438 11 9 7 426 18 124 10 423 14 11 421 20 12 416 11 13 399 15 14 4 393 15 96 15 8 392 24 144 16 391 23 17 385 11 18 385 12 19 385 15 20 6 382 16 112 21 9 377 16 131 113 1 155 2 33 1 ATP Year-To-Date Challenger Rankings as of November 5, 2012. 2 Seedings were determined according to the ATP Singles Rankings as of November 26, 2012. KeyQualifiedWildcard Awardee Alternate Declined Participation

The top seven players with the most points accumulated in ATP Challenger tournaments during the year plus one wild card entrant from the host country qualified for the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour Finals. Countable points include points earned in 2012 until November 5, plus points earned at late-season 2011 Challenger tournaments played after November 14. However, players were only eligible to qualify for the tournament if they played a minimum of eight ATP Challenger Tour tournaments during the season. Moreover, the accumulated year-to-date points were only countable to a maximum of ten best results.

The tournament line-up was initially announced on 7 November 2012 at the tournament's website, based on the 2012 ATP Year-To-Date Challenger Rankings up to that date.

Victor Hănescu, Paolo Lorenzi, Aljaž Bedene and Evgeny Donskoy qualified directly to the tournament, whereas Guido Pella, Andreas Haider-Maurer and Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo were given their berths after Martin Kližan, Andrey Kuznetzov, Jerzy Janowicz, Tatsuma Ito, Daniel Gimeno Traver, Roberto Bautista Agut and Grega Žemlja chose not to participate. Thomaz Bellucci, the Brazilian No. 1, was given the wildcard entry to the tournament for the second consecutive year.

In the week before the tournament and after the line-up was closed, Andreas Haider-Maurer and Evgeny Donskoy withdrew from the tournament due to injury and personal reasons, respectively. They were replaced by the designated alternates Gastão Elias and Adrian Ungur.

Victor Hănescu, Romanian No. 1 and former World No. 26, qualified as the leader of the ATP Challenger Tour ranking. He won 3 Challenger Tour titles in Szczecin, Banja Luka and Timișoara, finished runner-up on another 3 occasions in Sibiu, Bercuit and Arad and was semifinalist on yet another 3 tournaments in Cordenons, Milan and Marrakech.

Paolo Lorenzi entered the tournament just after achieving a career-high World No. 63 ranking. He won 2 Challenger Tour titles in Cordenons and Medellín, and had 5 runner-up showings in Sarasota, Guadalajara, Todi, San Luis Potosí and Salinas. He entered the tournament as the Italian No. 3 in the singles rankings.

Aljaž Bedene, Slovenian No. 3, achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 79 during the 2012 season, boosted by 4 Challenger Tour titles at Wuhan, Košice, Barletta and Casablanca, a runner-up finish in An-Ning and a semifinal appearance in Prague. He won the most ATP Challenger Tour singles titles between the qualified players.

Guido Pella is another of the players who achieved career-high rankings shortly before the tournament. The Argentinian No. 7 earned a career-high ranking of World No. 108 following 3 Challenger Tour titles at Campinas, Manta and Salinas. He also reached the final in Guayaquil and the semifinals in Rio de Janeiro and Lima.

Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo, Spanish No. 12 and former World No. 50, won 2 Challenger Tour titles in Tunis and San Luis Potosí, finished runner-up in Pereira, and reached the semifinals in Guayaquil twice (both in the 2011 and 2012 editions).

Gastão Elias achieved career-high rankings of World No. 133 and Portuguese No. 2 during the 2012 season. He won his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Rio de Janeiro, and had 3 runner-up finishes at Caltanissetta, Porto Alegre and São Paulo, as well as a semifinalist showing in Tampere.

Adrian Ungur, Romanian No. 2, was also the second Romanian player to qualify for the ATP Challenger Tour Finals, together with Victor Hănescu. In the 2012 season, he achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 79 and reached 6 tournament finals on the ATP Challenger Tour, winning one title in Sibiu, and finishing as runner-up in Trnava, Brașov, Marrakech, Meknes and Bucaramanga. He also reached the semifinals in Montevideo.

Thomaz Bellucci, Brazilian No. 1 and former World No. 21, received a wildcard entry to the ATP Challenger Tour Finals for a second consecutive year and he is the only player to repeat a presence in the tournament. During the 2012 season, he mostly played tournaments from the ATP World Tour. Still, he achieved success in both the ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour. In the latter, he won the title in Braunschweig and reached the semifinals at the 2011 ATP Challenger Tour Finals in São Paulo. In the ATP World Tour, he won his third career tile in Gstaad, defeating Janko Tipsarević (No. 8 at the time) in the final, lost the final in Moscow to Andreas Seppi, and reached the semifinals in both Stuttgart and São Paulo. Bellucci has also contributed to the promotion of the Brazilian team to the 2013 Davis Cup World Group with 3 singles rubbers wins.

Thiago Alves became the first designated alternate for the tournament, after the preceding alternate players, Gastão Elias and Adrian Ungur, were moved to the main draw before the tournament began. Alves was given the chance to play two round robin matches, due to Thomaz Bellucci's withdrawal with a left shoulder injury after being defeated in his first round robin match. Thiago Alves won 2 titles in the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour, in São Paulo and Guadalajara. His 2012 results also included a runner-up finish in Cali and 3 semifinal finishes in Florianópolis, Campinas and Rio Quente.

Groupings

The draw took place on November 25, 2012. The top seed was placed in the Green Group and the second seed placed in the Yellow Group. Players seeded three and four, five and six, seven and eight, were then drawn in pairs and divided into the two groups.

Green Group: Thomaz Bellucci , Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo , Adrian Ungur , Guido Pella .

Yellow Group: Paolo Lorenzi , Victor Hănescu , Aljaž Bedene , Gastão Elias .

Player head-to-heads These were the head-to-head records between the qualified players, immediately before the tournament.

Day-by-day summary

Day 1: November 27, 2012 MatchesGroupWinnerLoserScoreYellow Group Victor Hănescu Aljaž Bedene 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–5)Yellow Group Paolo Lorenzi Gastão Elias 7–5, 6–2Green Group Adrian Ungur Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo 6–4, 4–6, 6–2Green Group Guido Pella Thomaz Bellucci [1/WC]4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–5

Day 2: November 28, 2012 MatchesGroupWinnerLoserScoreYellow Group Aljaž Bedene Gastão Elias 6–3, 6–7(5–7), 6–3Yellow Group Victor Hănescu Paolo Lorenzi 6–3, 6–4Green Group Adrian Ungur Guido Pella 4–6, 7–6(8–6), 7–6(7–5)Green Group Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo Thiago Alves [9/Alt]6–3, 7–6(7–3)

Day 3: November 29, 2012 MatchesGroupWinnerLoserScoreYellow Group Gastão Elias Victor Hănescu 3–6, 7–5, 6–3Yellow Group Aljaž Bedene Paolo Lorenzi 6–1, 6–3Green Group Thiago Alves [9/Alt] Adrian Ungur 7–6(8–6), 6–2Green Group Guido Pella Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo 7–6(7–4), 6–2

Day 4: November 30, 2012 MatchesGroupWinnerLoserScoreSemifinals Adrian Ungur Aljaž Bedene 6–4, 6–1Semifinals Guido Pella Victor Hănescu 7–6(7–3), 6–2

Day 5: December 1, 2012 MatchesGroupWinnerLoserScoreFinal Guido Pella Adrian Ungur 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–4)

Points and prize money The total prize money for the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour Finals was US$220,000.

StagePrize MoneyPointsUndefeated Champion $91,200 125Final win $45,000 50Semifinal win $21,000 30Round robin win per match $6,300 15Participation $6,300 –Alternates $3,500 –

Champion

Guido Pella def. Adrian Ungur, 6–3, 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–4)

See also 2012 ATP Challenger Tour 2012 ATP World Tour Finals 2012 WTA Tour Championships

References

External links Official Website