Challenger

The crowd-funded Busan Challenger turns 20!

When a group of passionate tennis fans in Busan, South Korea began donating their own money to host a small national tournament in 1999, little did they know it would turn into the longest-running ATP Challenger Tour event in Asia.

TESAMO, also known as the Tennis Lovers Group, set out to chase its dream of organising a tournament in their home country before the turn of the century. From there, the tournament only grew in interest, sparking the group's imagination for how the event could expand.

Four years after TESAMO started the national tournament on their own, the Korean Tennis Association and Busan City Government jumped in to help and launch the first edition of the ATP Challenger Tour event in 2003. This week, the Vitro Busan Open is celebrating its 20th anniversary at that level.

“Our purpose of hosting this tournament is providing players the pathway to compete at higher level ATP Tour events,” said Jong Yun Lee, a member of TESAMO before becoming the president of the Busan Tennis Association. “We always emphasise the pathway to the ATP Tour for players.”

The longest-running tournament in Asia 🇰🇷

What an achievement for the Vitro Busan Open 👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/WCyYFp2A5u

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) April 10, 2024

Tucked in the shadows of lush green mountains north of Busan, population nearly 3.5 million, the hard-court tournament has witnessed five Korean champions: Young-Jun Kim, Hyung-Taik Lee, Yong-Kyu Lim and former World No. 19 Hyeon Chung.

The organisers of the 125 event have even endured through hardship to keep the tournament alive, making this week’s milestone all the more sweet.

“It was a rough journey, actually,” Lee said. “In the middle of the journey, I think there was a time where it was going to discontinue because TESAMO was disappearing. The Busan Tennis Association had no experience organising tournaments at this level. But they went through this difficult time and successfully continued.

“The main sponsor for it was our city government. They decided to sponsor the Busan Tennis Association and eventually TESAMO no longer existed. The Busan Tennis Association has taken a role the past 10 years and tried to improve the Challenger and we are looking for an opportunity to have a Tour event.”

^{The Spo 1 Park is the host site for the Busan Challenger. Credit: Vitro Busan Open}

The Busan Challenger has been an important stop for South Koreans such as Chung, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals in 2018, just three years after he was crowned champion on home soil.

Soonwoo Kwon, who has been as high as No. 52 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is relishing his fifth opportunity to play the Vitro Busan Open this week.

“It is one of the greatest opportunities I’ve had,” Kwon said through a translator. “The people always are cheering for me and it means a lot to me for the people of South Korea to be giving me a lot of support.

“We don’t have a 250 here in South Korea anymore and this is the biggest tournament we have. I think having this tournament here in our country helps a lot of junior players. We are glad and proud to have the Busan Open in our country.”

So what is next for South Korea and professional tennis? They too, like players on the ATP Challenger Tour, want to reach the next level of the sport by hosting a mainstay tournament.

“Now, I think [we] are looking for another level of tournament,” Lee said.

^{Soonwoo Kwon in action at the 2024 Vitro Busan Open. Credit: Seo Jin Hwang}