The 2012

ATP Challenger Tour Finals The ATP Challenger Tour Finals was a tennis tournament played between 2011 and 2015 at the end of season, involving the top seven players in that year's ATP Challenger Tour, plus an invited player from the tournament's host country. Like the ATP ...

was a tennis tournament played at the

Ginásio do Ibirapuera Ginásio do Ibirapuera (officially named Ginásio Estadual Geraldo José de Almeida)
is an indoor arena, indo ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, 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 The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...

(ATP) and was part of the

2012 ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour was the secondary professional tennis circuit organized by the ATP. The 2012 ATP Challenger Tour calendar comprised 15 top tier Tretorn SERIE+ tournaments, and a total of 148 tournaments, with prize money ranging from $35 ...

. 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

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 Victor Hănescu (born 21 July 1981) is a former Romanian tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world no. 26. Professional career Hănescu attained a career-high singles ranking of No. 26 on 6 July 2009. In a Davis Cup match again ...

Paolo Lorenzi Paolo Lorenzi (; born 15 December 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player. Lorenzi was coached by Claudio Galoppini. Tennis career Lorenzi reached his first ATP World Tour final at the age of 32, in São Paulo. Here, at the 2014 B ...

Aljaž Bedene Aljaž Bedene (born 18 July 1989) is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. He was a naturalised Briton and played with this nationality from 2015 to 2017, returning to represent Slovenia in 2018. Bedene has won six Futures and 16 Chal ...

and

Evgeny Donskoy Evgeny Evgenyevich Donskoy ( rus, Евге́ний Евге́ньевич Донско́й, , ɪ̯ɪvˈɡʲenʲɪɪ̯ dɐnˈskoɪ̯; born 9 May 1990) is a Russian professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 65, ...

qualified directly to the tournament, whereas

Guido Pella Guido Pella (; born 17 May 1990) is an inactive Argentine professional tennis player. In August 2019, Pella reached his career best world No. 20 in singles. In July 2019, he peaked at No. 55 in doubles. Personal life His father, Carlos, taught ...

Andreas Haider-Maurer Andreas Haider-Maurer (; born 22 March 1987) is a retired professional tennis player from Austria. In the first round of the 2010 US Open, he forced world No. 5 Robin Söderling to a fifth set before losing the match. That same year, Haider-Mau ...

and

Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo (; born 6 January 1978 in Alicante, Spain) is a former professional male tennis player from Spain. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 50, achieved on 2 October 2006. His favourite surface is clay, where h ...

were given their berths after

Martin Kližan Martin Kližan (; born 11 July 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. The winner of the 2006 French Open boys' singles title, Kližan turned pro in 2007 and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 24, achieved on 27 April ...

, Andrey Kuznetzov,

Jerzy Janowicz Jerzy Filip Janowicz Jr. (; born 13 November 1990) is a Polish professional tennis player. Janowicz is best known for becoming the first Polish man to reach a major semifinal at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. Noted for his very powerful serv ...

Tatsuma Ito , fullname = Tatsuma Ito , country = , residence = , birth_date = , birth_place = Inabe, Japan , height = , turnedpro = December 2006 , plays = Right-handed (two-handed backhand) , coach = Alexander Waske , careerprizemoney = $1,735,524. , si ...

Daniel Gimeno Traver Daniel Gimeno Traver (; born 7 August 1985) is a professional Spanish tennis player who turned pro in 2004, when he was eighteen years old. He reached the final of Casablanca in 2015 and has won 12 Challenger Tour events, achieving a career- ...

Roberto Bautista Agut Roberto Bautista Agut (; born 14 April 1988) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in singles, which he first achieved on 4 November 2019. Bautista A ...

and

Grega Žemlja Grega Žemlja (born 29 September 1986) is a retired Slovenian tennis player. He has won five singles titles and one doubles title on the ATP Challenger Tour. In 2012, he reached the third round of the US Open, the first Slovenian male player eve ...

chose not to participate.

Thomaz Bellucci Thomaz Cocchiarali Bellucci (born 30 December 1987, in Tietê) is a Brazilian professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21 in July 2010. Bellucci used a string of ATP Challenger Tour victories early in ...

, 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,

and

withdrew from the tournament due to injury and personal reasons, respectively. They were replaced by the designated alternates

Gastão Elias Gastão José Ministro Elias (; born 24 November 1990) is a Portuguese professional tennis player, who competes on the ATP World Tour. He became the fifth Portuguese tennis player to break into the top 100 of the Association of Tennis Profession ...

and

Adrian Ungur Adrian Ungur (born 22 January 1985) is a Romanian former tennis player who mainly competed on the ATP Challenger Tour. He was a member of the Romania Davis Cup Team and was coached by Fabrizio Fanucci. In June 2012, Ungur reached his career-hi ...

. 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

. 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 Janko Tipsarević ( sr-cyr, Јанко Типсаревић, ; born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one AT ...

(No. 8 at the time) in the final, lost the final in Moscow to

Andreas Seppi Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces. Tennis car ...

, 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 The World Group was the highest level of Davis Cup competition in 2013. The first-round losers go into the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs, and the winners progress to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinalists were guaranteed a World Group spot ...

with 3 singles rubbers wins. Thiago Alves became the first designated alternate for the tournament, after the preceding alternate players,

and

, were moved to the main draw before the tournament began. Alves was given the chance to play two round robin matches, due to

'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:

Yellow Group:

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

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

def.

, 6–3, 6–7^(4–7), 7–6^(7–4)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atp Challenger Tour Finals 2012

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