The Challenger tour finally drew to a close this week with the end of the events in Andria, Italy and Toyota, Japan.
In Andria former singles top 30 player Ivan Dodig smashed German veteran Michael Berrer 6-2, 6-1. The Croatian powered his way through the match in just over an hour. He hit thirteen aces and broke Berrer four times for the win. It marks the end of an excellent tournament for Dodig, who did not drop a set the whole tournament, with his toughest match coming against Egor Gerasimov in the semi-finals.
In Toyota, the final was also one-sided, though fortunately not as dramatic as was the case in Italy. The final saw Yoshihito Nishioka take on the in-form Alexander Kudryavtsev, who had already beaten James Duckworth and Yuichi Sugita in the competition. Nishioka though, proved just a step too far for the Russian, as the Japanese seventh seed won in front of the home crowd 6-3, 6-4.
The Challenger event now takes a break until January, when Asia again plays host to the start of the season with the warm-up events for the Australian Open taking place in the likes of the Happy Valley Challenger.
Tennis never completely disappears, there are still Futures events running almost throughout the year, with no less than fifteen Futures events running this week alone.
