2012 ATP Challenger Tour Finals

Qualification

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 [1], Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo [4], Adrian Ungur [6], Guido Pella [7].

Yellow Group: Paolo Lorenzi [2], Victor Hănescu [3], Aljaž Bedene [5], Gastão Elias [8].

Player head-to-heads

These were the head-to-head records between the qualified players, immediately before the tournament. | title-1= | standings-overall = Overall | team-1-abbrev=Bellucci | team-1=BRA Thomaz Bellucci BRA Thiago Alves | team-2-abbrev=Lorenzi | team-2=ITA Paolo Lorenzi | team-3-abbrev=** Hănescu** | team-3=ROU Victor Hănescu | team-4-abbrev=Ramírez Hidalgo | team-4=ESP Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo | team-5-abbrev=Bedene | team-5=SVN Aljaž Bedene | team-6-abbrev=Ungur | team-6=ROU Adrian Ungur | team-7-abbrev=Pella | team-7=ARG Guido Pella | team-8-abbrev=Elias | team-8=POR Gastão Elias | color-row-1= |1v2=0–1 1–0 |1v3=1–0 0–0 |1v4=1–1 0–3 |1v5=0–0 0–0 |1v6=0–0 0–1 |1v7=0–0 1–2 |1v8=0–0 2–1 |standings-1=2–2 4–7 | color-row-2= |2v1=1–0 |2v3=1–1 |2v4=1–3 |2v5=0–0 |2v6=0–1 |2v7=1–4 |2v8=1–1 |standings-2=5–10 | color-row-3= |3v1=0–1 |3v2=1–1 |3v4=1–0 |3v5=0–0 |3v6=0–0 |3v7=1–1 |3v8=0–0 |standings-3=3–3 | color-row-4= |4v1=1–1 |4v2=3–1 |4v3=0–1 |4v5=1–1 |4v6=0–1 |4v7=1–4 |4v8=1–2 |standings-4=7–11 | color-row-5= |5v1=0–0 |5v2=0–0 |5v3=0–0 |5v4=1–1 |5v6=0–0 |5v7=0–0 |5v8=0–0 |standings-5=1–1 | color-row-6= |6v1=0–0 |6v2=4–1 |6v3=1–1 |6v4=4–1 |6v5=0–0 |6v7=0–0 |6v8=0–0 |standings-6=9–3 | color-row-7= |7v1=0–0 |7v2=1–0 |7v3=0–0 |7v4=1–0 |7v5=0–0 |7v6=0–0 |7v8=0–0 |standings-7=2–0 | color-row-8= |8v1=0–0 |8v2=1–1 |8v3=0–0 |8v4=2–1 |8v5=0–0 |8v6=0–0 |8v7=0–0 |standings-8=3–2

Day-by-day summary

Day 1: November 27, 2012

Day 2: November 28, 2012

Day 3: November 29, 2012

Day 4: November 30, 2012

Day 5: December 1, 2012

Points and prize money

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

Champion

Main article: 2012 ATP Challenger Tour Finals – Singles

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

References

References

1. (October 24, 2012). "ATP Challenger Tour Finals To Return In São Paulo". [[Association of Tennis Professionals]].
2. (November 5, 2012). "ATP Year-To-Date Challenger Rankings (singles)". [[Association of Tennis Professionals]].
3. (7 November 2012). "The seven qualifiers for the tournament are defined.". ATP Challenger Tour Finals Official Website.
4. (21 November 2012). "Gastão Elias replaces Haider-Maurer". ATP Challenger Tour Finals Official Website.
5. (22 November 2012). "Bedene wants to represent Eastern European tennis in the Finals". ATP Challenger Tour Finals Official Website.
6. (28 November 2012). "Hanescu Clinches SF Spot At ATP Challenger Tour Finals.". [[Association of Tennis Professionals]].