HISTORY

The 23rd USTA Nielsen $50,000 Challenger Men’s Pro Tennis Championship will take place on July 5th- July 11th at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center in Winnetka, Illinois. This is the only Men’s professional tennis tournament in the Chicago area. The first Challenger tournament took place in Winnetka in 1984, and over the years has featured players who have risen to the peak of the world tennis rankings. Former top professionals such as Lleyton, Hewitt, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Todd Martin, Luke Jensen have all played in Winnetka. Current highly ranked tour players we have hosted include Rajeev Ram, Sam Querry, Michael Russell, Jack Sock, and our 2011 singles champion, James Blake.

The net proceeds from the tournament continue to support the North Suburban Special Recreation Association (NSSRA), an intergovernmental partnership of ten park districts, two cities and one village in the northern suburban area of Chicago. NSSRA provides and facilitates year-round recreation programs and services for children and adults with disabilities who live in the partner communities.

This tournament could not take place without the generous financial support of our sponsors, and the commitment of hundreds of community members who volunteer at the tournament, provide housing for players, and serve as ball kids.

Below is a history of the singles and doubles tournament winners and runners up.

Singles

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1984	Marc Flur	Mike Leach	6–3, 6–4
1985	Barry Moir	Harold Solomon	2–6, 7–5, 6–2
1986	not held
1987	Simon Youl	Roberto Saad	5–7, 7–6, 6–3
1988	Jeff Tarango	Gianluca Pozzi	7–5, 5–7, 6–2
1989	Brian Garrow	Todd Martin	6–4, 6–2
1990	Cristiano Caratti	Chris Garner	7–6, 6–1
1991	Byron Black	Todd Martin	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
1992	Chuck Adams	Steve Bryan	6–4, 6–4
1993	Kevin Ullyett	Maurice Ruah	6–3, 6–2
1994	Vince Spadea	Cristiano Caratti	6–1, 4–6, 7–5
1995-96	not held
1997	Gianluca Pozzi	Wayne Black	6–4, 6–2
1998	Geoff Grant	Diego Nargiso	5–7, 6–3, 7–5
1999	Alex O’Brien	Max Mirnyi	6–2, 6–2
2000	Takao Suzuki	Yoon Yong-Il	6–2, 6–4
2001-05	not held
2006	Sam Querrey	Andrea Stoppini	6–2, 6–3
2007	Noam Okun	Kevin Anderson	6–4, 6–3
2008	Rajeev Ram	Scoville Jenkins	7–5, 6–4
2009	Alex Kuznetsov	Tim Smyczek	6–4, 7–6(1)
2010	Brian Dabul	Tim Smyczek	6–1, 1–6, 6–1
2011	James Blake	Bobby Reynolds	6–3, 6–1
2012	John-Patrick Smith	Ričardas Berankis	3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–3)

Doubles

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1984	Dan Goldie  Michael Kures	Ricardo Acuña  Belus Prajoux	3–6, 6–4, 7–5
1985	Ricky Brown  Luke Jensen	Kelly Evernden  Brian Levine	6–4, 6–7, 6–4
1986	not held
1987	Tobias Svantesson  Jon Treml	Pieter Aldrich  Warren Green	6–3, 6–4
1988	Ricardo Acuna  Royce Deppe	Jared Palmer  Pete Sampras	6–4, 6–4
1989	Ville Jansson  Scott Warner	Bill Benjes  Arthur Engle	6–7, 6–4, 6–4
1990	Zeeshan Ali  Menno Oosting	Doug Flach  Luis Herrera	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
1991	Byron Black  Scott Melville	Keith Evans  Dave Randall	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
1992	Andrew Kratzmann  Roger Rasheed	Rick Witsken  Todd Witsken	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
1993	Wayne Arthurs  Mark Petchey	Pat Rafter  Sandon Stolle	7–6, 6–7, 6–4
1994	Brian MacPhie  David Witt	Doug Flach  Wade McGuire	7–5, 6–2
1995-96	not held
1997	Michael Sell  Myles Wakefield	Chad Clark  Ben Ellwood	6–3, 7–6
1998	Grant Silcock  Myles Wakefield	Geoff Grant  Mark Merklein	1–6, 7–6, 7–6
1999	James Blake  Thomas Blake	Max Mirnyi  Alexander Reichel	6–4, 6–7, 6–3
2000	Lee Hyung-taik  Yoon Yong-il	Matthew Breen  Luke Smith	2–6, 7–5, 6–3
2001-05	not held
2006	Cecil Mamiit  Eric Taino	Scoville Jenkins  Rajeev Ram	6–2, 6–4
2007	Patrick Briaud  Chris Drake	Nicholas Monroe  Izak van der Merwe	7–6, 6–4
2008	Todd Widom  Michael Yani	Chen Ti  Jose Statham	6–2, 6–2
2009	Carsten Ball  Travis Rettenmaier	Brett Joelson  Ryan Sweeting	6–1, 6–2
2010	Ryler DeHeart  Pierre-Ludovic Duclos	Rik de Voest  Somdev Devvarman	7–6(4), 4–6, [10–8]
2011	Treat Conrad Huey  Bobby Reynolds	Jordan Kerr  Travis Parrott	7–6(9–7), 6–4
2012	Devin Britton  Jeff Dadamo	John Peers  John-Patrick Smith