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MAIN DRAW PLAYERS: 11 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED AT THIS YEAR'S TIBURON CHALLENGER
In two weeks' time professional players from all around the world will descend upon our beautiful tennis club here in Tiburon.
India, El Salvador, Germany, Belgium, France, Barbados, Canada, Slovakia, Australia, Brazil and the USA will be represented by their tennis playing ambassadors. These gladiators of the modern game will no doubt be the talk of the town and there is nowhere else to be than courtside at the TPC for these nine days of spectacular tennis.
The qualifying singles draw has the further potential to welcome players from Italy, Ireland, Ecuador, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, Poland, New Zealand, Argentina, Latvia, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Russia and Finland.
The 2016 Tiburon Challenger qualifying event starts on September 24th and the main draw kicks off on Monday, September 26th !
Very limited box seating still available. Please contact Brendan at brendanc@tiburonpc.org for more information.
TIBURON CHALLENGER TOP SIX SINGLES SEEDS Germany's Benjamin Becker, no stranger to the world's biggest tennis stages is our No.1 seed this year. With a career high ranking of No.35 and career earnings of $4,262,515.00 Benjamin is sure to create tons of excitement for the crowds. 
- Nicknamed "Bennie"
- Began playing at age 7
- Father, Jorg, works in a tax office; mother, Ulrike, works at a retail store; 1 younger sister, Kathrin
- No relation to former No. 1 Boris Becker
- Played from 2002-05 at Baylor University in Texas and earned All-American honours last 3 years. Captured NCAA singles title (d. Michael Kogan of Tulane) and helped Baylor to its 1st team title in 2004 (d. UCLA)
- Majored in Finance and International Business and is 1 semester short of earning his degree
- Considers serve and forehand as his biggest weapons
- Favourite football team is 1. FC Köln and follows NBA Dallas Mavericks because of countryman Dirk Nowitzki
- Idolised Boris Becker and Andre Agassi growing up
- Voted Sportsman of the Year in November 2006, in his home province Saarland in Germany
- Voted 2006 ATP Newcomer of the Year by his fellow players
- Wife, Kristin; sons, Collin (born April 23, 2012) and Connor Jacob (born December 2, 2014)
N0. 2 SEED - BJORN FRATANGELO - Named after tennis legend Bjorn Borg
- Started playing tennis at age 4
- Father, Mario, born and raised until age 10 in Italy, near Rome
- Attended Barron Collier High School
- Favorite surface is hard courts
- Fan of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers
- Likes all sports and playing table tennis
2015 TIBURON CHALLENGER SINGLES CHAMPION TIM SMYCZEK IS BACK TO DEFEND HIS TITLE! - Began playing tennis at age 3 when his older brother started taking tennis lessons
- Father, Phil, is an engineer; mother, Jan, works at a tennis shop. Brother, Alec, is a lawyer; sister, Lauren, is a grad student
- Considers hard court as his favorite surface and backhand his favorite shot
- Favorite tournament is US Open
- Enjoys playing golf. Says if he wasn't a tennis player he would be a golfer
- Played the violin until he was 14
- Goal in tennis is to break into the Top 50, cement his place there
- Best tennis memory is playing on Rod Laver Arena at the 2015 Australian Open
- Wife, Ana (married Nov. 21, 2015)
- Trains at Saddlebrook in Tampa
N0. 4 SEED - DENIS NOVIKOV - Parents are Vladimir and Irene.
- Older brother is Nikolai
- Played junior hockey for six years
- Enjoys going to the movies, playing basketball and reading in his spare time
- Reached 2010 US Open junior QFs and peaked at World No. 30 in January 2011
- Educated at Kaplan College Prep and competed at UCLA
NO. 5 SEEF - FRANCIS TIAFOE - Started playing tennis at age 3 with twin brother Franklin
- Father, Frances Sr.; mother, Alphina
- A product of Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., a USTA Certified Regional Training Center, where his father, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, helped construct tennis facility in 1999 and became Head of Maintenance soon after; the twins would often come to work with their father and spend the entire day at tennis center. His mother helped boys with schooling while their
- father worked
- Big fan of Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA) and Washington Redskins (NFL)
- Moved to Boca Raton, Fla. in May 2015 to train with USTA coaching staff. Will also train during year at his hometown in College Park, Md.
NO. 6 SEE - AUSTIN KRAJICEK - Began playing tennis at age 5 with his father, Rob
- Mother, Sherry, a former pro water skier, is a school nurse
- Favorite surfaces are hard and grass
- Favorite shot is his serve
- Favorite tournament is Wimbledon
- Best tennis memory so far was winning the 2008 USTA Boys' National Tennis Championships in Kalamazoo and playing in the main draw of the US Open
- Idols growing up included Pete Sampras and Roger Federer
- Off the court enjoys golf, fishing and hunting
- If he wasn't a tennis player, he would be a golfer
- Won the 2011 NCAA Doubles Championship for Texas A&M University, alongside Jeff Dadamo
- Fan of the NFL team Pittsburgh Steelers and "everything Texas A&M"
- Goal is to "keep getting better one step at a time"
- Trains near Los Angeles at the USTA facility in Carson, California
- Fitness trainer is Scott Clark
TPC LEAGUE Combo league season matches start next week. Stay tuned for results.
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