Challenge of Champions

The "Challenge of Champions" was created to be one of the richest prize money tennis events in the world. Created by Leo E. Fenn III in 1985 as an Invitation Only Tennis Tournament which would feature daily matches which were the equivalent to the Finals of the US Open or Wimbledon. It was usually held before the Masters and invited only the top eight men's tennis players in the world according to their rankings on the ATP poll. In 1985, creator & founder 24-year-old Leo E. Fenn III partnered with 28-year-old Mark Myden to form a company called Special Events Productions. SEP produced the "Challenge of Champions" Tournament which became a major player in professional tennis. These two entrepreneurs became the youngest producers in history of professional tennis. Leo & Mark acquired major fortune 500 corporate sponsors such as AT&T, VISA, Cadillac, Fila Sportswear, DeBeers Diamonds as well as negotiated two days of live weekend television coverage on NBC. Their title sponsorship package sold to AT&T was the largest single vent sponsorship package in professional tennis that year. Leo negotiated with the brand new Thomas Mack Center Arena in Las Vegas to host the inaugural event. The event rights were eventually sold to Pro Serve and concluded following the 1989 Challenge.

Past winners and runners-up

Year	Dates	Venue	Prize Money	Champion	Runner-up	Score in final	Surface
1989	Apr 26-30	Atlanta	$1,200,000	Andre Agassi	Michael Chang	6–3, 6–2	Green Clay
1988	Apr 28-May 1	Atlanta	$1,200,000	Ivan Lendl	Stefan Edberg	2–6, 6–1, 6–3	Green Clay
1987	Oct 6-11	Atlanta	$1,200,000	John McEnroe	Paul Annacone	6–4, 7–5	Indoor Carpet
1986	*Nov 25-30 1986	Atlanta	$1,200,000	Boris Becker	John McEnroe	3–6, 6–3, 7–5	Indoor Carpet
1985	Jan 6-12 1986	Las Vegas	$1,000,000	Ivan Lendl	Jimmy Connors	6–2, 6–3	Indoor Carpet

Held twice during the 1986 calendar year like the Nabisco Masters

References

World of Tennis annuals

External links

Tennis exhibition tournaments

Current	Torneo Tenis Playa (since 1971) Kooyong Classic (since 1988) Hopman Cup (since 1989) Hong Kong Tennis Classic (since 1999) Boodles Challenge (since 2002) Liverpool International (since 2002) Copa Peugeot Argentina de Tenis (since 2003) BNP Paribas Tennis Classic (since 2007) World Tennis Championship (since 2009) World Tennis Challenge (since 2009) BNP Paribas Showdown (since 2009) Masters Guinot-Mary Cohr (since 2009) Diamond Games (since 2009) Hua Hin Tennis Exhibition (since 2010) Singapore Women's Tennis Exhibition (since 2011) La Grande Sfida (since 2011) Necker Cup (since 2012) Tie Break Tens (since 2015) The Skills Challenge (since 2017)

Previous	1973, 1985, 1992, 1998 Battle of the Sexes 1981–1989 Challenge of Champions Hamlet Challenge Cup 1982–1991 ECC Antwerp 1988–1989 Eurocard Open 2004 Superset Tennis 2007 Battle of Surfaces 2007 Turbo Tennis 2008–2009 Masters France 2010 Hit for Haiti (Australian Open) 2010 Best of Belgium 2010 Match for Africa 2010 Joining Forces for the Benefit of Children 2011 Rally for Relief 2011 Bratislava Tennis Exhibition 2011 Li Na & Friends

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