site.btaAdrian Andreev Becomes Fifth Bulgarian Tennis Player to Win Challenger Title

“Welcome to the winner’s circle, Adrian,” the ATP Challenger Tour official Instagram account posted on Sunday. The recipient of the congratulations? Adrian Andreev, who became the fifth Bulgarian tennis player to ever win a Challenger title.

The 23-years old secured a 6-3 6-0 win over world No. 234 Carlos Taberner in the final in Porto, Portugal.

This was Andreev’s second Challenger final after he previously reached that stage in Zadar, Croatia in March. His victory on Sunday earned him 75 ranking points that will move him to world No. 203 next Monday when the rankings are updated.  

The ATP Challenger Tour is the second-highest tier of tennis competition behind the ATP Tour. The first Challenger events were held in 1978.

Only four Bulgarians have managed to win a title at this level before Andreev: Milen Velev (1993), Orlin Stanoytchev (1996) Ivaylo Traykov (1999), Grigor Dimitrov (2010) and Dimitar Kuzmanov (2021). Out of them, only Dimitrov, Stanoytchev and Kuzmanov have managed to win more than once, as Kuzmanov won his second in July this year, while Dimitrov and Stanoytchev have four each.

Two years ago, in November 2022, Andreev was part of another historic feat for Bulgarian tennis – for the first time three Bulgarian players were part of top 200 at the same time. He was world No. 197, Kuzmanov was world No. 198 and Dimitrov was world No. 28.