Five-week South American swing of M25 events begins

A five-week swing of men’s $25,000 tournaments begins on the ITF World Tennis Tour in South America this week.

The Tour will take in two consecutive weeks in Lima, before moving on to Punta del Este in Uruguay and finishing with back-to-back weeks in Argentina, in Cordoba and Hurlingham (Buenos Aires).

The ITF’s M25 tournaments, men’s tournaments offering $25,000 in prize money, provide a bridge between M15 entry-level professional tournaments and ATP Challenger tournaments and are an important stepping stone in a player’s career development.

The first three months of 2020 will see 35 M25 tournaments take place, an increase of 14 from the same period in 2019, spread across all five continents.

The South-American mini-swing, supported in part by the Grand Slam Development Fund and the ITF, provides much-needed playing opportunities for players looking to make the climb through the ranks of professional tennis.

Home favourite Nicolas Alvarez, ranked 303, is the fourth seed at the first M25 Lima tournament and is one of eleven ATP Top 400 ranked-players in the singles draw, which will likely comprise amongst the strongest of fields at M25 level in 2020.

A coordinated approach by the ITF and ATP in managing the first-quarter calendar has resulted in longer regional swings to reduce the cost implications for players.

Indeed, the five South American M25 tournaments follow on from an ATP Challenger tournament, also in Punta del Este; while two M25 tournaments in Nonthaburi, Thailand in the weeks of 27 January and 3 February follow two weeks of ATP Challengers in Bangkok. The M25 Potchefstroom tournament in South Africa on 2 March is the lead-in event to a Challenger at the same location a week later.

These examples feed into a global picture where 15 countries will host M25 tournaments in the first quarter in 2020, up from just six in 2019, broadening opportunities for players looking to break through to the next level.