Last week at the Sydney Challenger, 17-year-old Nick Kyrgios won the title while only dropping a single set. The young man has been on quite the run, first winning the Australian Open boy’s singles title, reaching the semifinals at his first challenger, then winning in Sydney.
Claiming a title at this level–even against a relatively weak challenger field like that in Sydney–is an impressive feat for any teenager, let alone a 17-year-0ld playing only his second challenger. And while much has been made of the increasing age of the top ATP contenders, winning a challenger at 17 has never been a common feat.
In fact, this is only the 27th time it has happened, and Kyrgios is only the 16th man to do it. The list he joins of previous 16- and 17-year-old winners is littered with some of the game’s contemporary greats. (On Twitter earlier, I offered slightly different numbers; I mistakenly included Donald Young, who won a challenger on his 18th birthday.)
See below for the full list, or click here for a sortable table.
Date Tournament Winner Age 20130225 Sydney CH Nick Kyrgios 17.8 20100201 Burnie CH Bernard Tomic 17.3 20090223 Melbourne CH Bernard Tomic 16.4 20060731 Segovia CH Juan Martin Del Potro 17.9 20060403 Aguascalientes CH Juan Martin Del Potro 17.5 20051031 Montevideo CH Juan Martin Del Potro 17.1 20051031 Aachen CH Evgeny Korolev 17.7 20050509 San Remo CH Novak Djokovic 18.0 [17.98] 20041101 Aachen CH Novak Djokovic 17.5 20040517 Budapest CH Novak Djokovic 17.0 20030922 Grenoble CH Richard Gasquet 17.3 20030811 Graz CH Tomas Berdych 17.9 20030728 Segovia CH Rafael Nadal 17.2 20030714 Olbia CH Nicolas Almagro 17.9 20030714 Budaors CH Tomas Berdych 17.8 20030623 Reggio Emilia CH Richard Gasquet 17.0 20030421 Napoli CH Richard Gasquet 16.9 20030324 Barletta CH Rafael Nadal 16.8 20030310 Sarajevo CH Richard Gasquet 16.7 20020701 Montauban CH Richard Gasquet 16.0 20020513 Fergana CH Jimmy Wang 17.3 20020204 Belgrade CH Mario Ancic 17.9 20000515 Samarkand CH Mikhail Youzhny 17.9 19981207 Perth CH Lleyton Hewitt 17.8 19970908 Espinho CH Marat Safin 17.6 19950306 Garmisch CH Nicolas Kiefer 17.7 19920803 Ribeirao CH Gabriel Silberstein 17.8