Lose early at Indian Wells? The next big event is closer than you think. Welcome to the Phoenix Challenger

Tennis’ two main tours are frenzied races from one end of the globe to the other. Yet compared to the ATP’s Challenger Tour, they can seem like calm ocean waters that cover up the impossibly intricate ecosystems beneath.

Similar to baseball’s minor leagues or the NBA’s G League, Challengers, as the name implies, are where the sport’s hundreds of hungry hopefuls, of all ages, make their livings, hone their skills and, most important, do whatever it takes to get themselves into The Show.

There are roughly 200 Challenger events each year, and they come in five different levels—50, 75, 100, 125 and 175—based on the number of ranking points they offer. While the sport’s top men fight it out in one spot—Indian Wells—this week, Challenger players will fan out in all directions, to Phoenix, Arizona (a 175), Cap Cana, Dominican Republic (175), Cherbourg, France (75), Santiago, Chile (75) and Crete, Greece (50).

Next week, there are 75s in Asunción, Paraguay; Mérida, Mexico; Murcia, Spain and Zadar, Croatia.

This wide-ranging but largely invisible circuit has benefited from a couple of recent developments. One was the release of the movie Challengers, which made the desperate quest for second-tier tennis glory look like a sex-charged adventure. Another was the decision by the main tours to lengthen their 1000-level events to 12 days. That has left more downtime for the players who lose early at those tournaments—downtime they can fill by entering a Challenger, and preferably one close at hand, during the second week.

The event that’s closest at hand to Indian Wells is the Arizona Tennis Classic, which starts today in Phoenix, and which comes with a $250,000 purse. Matteo Berrettini won the title in 2019 and played there in 2024. Nuno Borges, currently ranked 36th, is the two-time defending champion. This year the field features eight players in the Top 75. Borges is the first seed, followed by Flavio Cobolli and Jan-Lennard Struff, while upstart-of-the-moment Joao Fonseca joined the field after his second-round loss at Indian Wells.

Last week, when the WTA played a tournament at the Austin Country Club in Texas, the champion, Jessica Pegula, joked that she and her fellow pros had “crashed the place” and taken precious court time from its members. That’s pretty much what the men will do at the Phoenix Country Club this week. Founded in 1899 and featuring a professional-level golf course, the club has 10 hard courts. Once upon a time, until the Open Era catapulted tennis into stadiums and arenas, it was clubs like these that were the lifeblood of the game, and played host to the world’s amateur stars, from Don Budge to Pancho Gonzalez to Rod Laver.

Today, the role that Challenger events play in the lives of the pros is obvious. In a sport where there’s fierce competition simply to get on a court at a top-level tournament, they offer a place for hundreds more players to ply their trades. But Challengers can also add to the watching lives of the sport’s fans.

The level of play is only slightly below that of the Top 50. There are just as many different personalities and styles on display. You can get a look at up-and-comers before they’re famous. And if there are players you enjoy watching who drift in and out of the main tour, you can find them here, where they’re more likely to be thriving.

Take Yosuke Watanuki, for example. At 26, the native of Japan has taken Indian Wells by storm this week. In his five wins (three main draw, two qualifying), he has made himself an instant crowd favorite with his exciting, all-out attack and his ever-present smile. But Watanuki has long been available to watch on the Challenger Tour. In 2024, despite being sidelined by injury, he played Challenger events in Shanghai, Taipei, Matsuyama, and Kobe. This year he started his campaign at the Challenger in Canberra. Whatever level of tournament Watanuki enters, he’s going to be worth the price of admission.

ATP Challenger tournaments are streaming on TennisChannel.com. (Today's featured matches from Phoenix include Roman Safiullin vs. Christopher Eubanks, Rinky Hijikata vs. Brandon Holt, Reilly Opelka vs. Arthur Rinderknech and Alexander Bublik vs. Aleksandar Vukic.) They’re also held in dozens of places where the main tour never goes; there’s probably at least one that’s within driving distance of wherever you live.

This week, if you want to see what the present holds for tennis, you can watch Indian Wells. If you want to get a glimpse of its possible future, you can tune in to see how Fonseca and company do in Phoenix.