The Play In Challenger Lille returns Feb. 16-22 at Tennis Club Lillois Lille Métropole, now established as France’s biggest professional tournament north of Paris. Upgraded in 2025 to an ATP Challenger Tour 125 event with $225,000 in prize money plus hospitality, the eighth edition brings the strongest field in the event’s history with three Top 100 players.

Among the headline names are Filip Misolic, Jacob Fearnley and Hugo Gaston. Misolic, the world No. 81, opens against Martin Landaluce as he seeks his fifth Challenger title, his first of 2026 and his first on hard court after winning just one match so far this season. Fearnley, at world No. 84, leads the bottom half of the draw and will meet Clement Chidekh in round one following a run to the Bahrain Tennis Open quarterfinals and a solid Davis Cup Qualifiers showing for Great Britain. Gaston, world No. 96, makes his debut in Lille and will face Sebastian Ofner.

Defending champion Arthur Bouquier returns with a wild card after his qualifying-to-title victory last year. The former world No. 189 begins against a qualifier and is searching for his first match win of the 2026 season. Nine French players occupy main-draw spots, and the event also highlights promising teenagers and rising pros. Sixteen-year-old Moise Kouame, currently No. 14 in the ITF Junior Rankings, claimed two ITF World Tennis Tour titles this season and will face a qualifier in the first round. Other young contenders include Justin Engel, Joel Schwaerzler and fourth seed Alexander Blockx.

Lloyd Harris arrives in Lille on the back of a 10-match winning streak after consecutive Challenger titles in Soma Bay and Tenerife. After defeating Alejandro Moro Canas 7-5, 7-5 in Sunday’s final, Harris reflected on the victory: “It was a big battle, a very long match in two sets but in the end, I played two fantastic games to break in each set and played all the big points well. That was key today.” On his comeback he added, “It’s a new career for me, it’s a new start,” and “It feels like I am starting a new process from nothing. I prefer not to compare it to the past. It was a younger me and I had to undergo many surgeries. I am just trying to improve day by day now and that’s more important for me.”

Stan Wawrinka has climbed back into the ATP Top 100 following a strong start to what he announced would be his final season on tour. After winning five matches so far in 2026—more than he won in all of 2025—Wawrinka reached the second round at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam and moved from No. 106 to No. 98 in the latest ATP rankings.

The 40-year-old is the first player aged 40 or older to appear in the ATP Top 100 since Roger Federer held that distinction during Wimbledon 2022. Federer was ranked No. 97 in the weeks of June 27 and July 4, 2022, and then fell out of the Top 100 and off the rankings on July 11, 2022, when his points from reaching the previous year’s Wimbledon quarterfinals expired.

Prior examples of 40-somethings in the Top 100 include Ivo Karlovic, who was No. 95 the week of December 30, 2019, and then dropped out the week of January 6, 2020. Feliciano Lopez narrowly missed the milestone in 2021, falling out of the Top 100 on September 13, 2021, exactly one week before his 40th birthday on September 20, 2021.

Wawrinka’s rise this week comes amid other notable ranking moves. Marin Cilic jumped from No. 61 to No. 43 after reaching the semifinals in Rotterdam. It is Cilic’s first time inside the Top 50 since multiple knee surgeries in 2023 and 2024, which forced him to miss most of both seasons and to fall off the rankings for several weeks in early 2024.

On the WTA side, Karolina Muchova rose from No. 19 to No. 11 after winning a WTA 1000 title in Doha, her highest ranking since returning in the summer of 2024 following wrist surgery. Maria Sakkari moved from No. 52 to No. 34 after a semifinal run in Doha, her best position in almost a year after missing the fall 2024 season with a shoulder injury. Victoria Mboko entered the WTA Top 10 at No. 10 after reaching the Doha final; at 19 she is the seventh Canadian to reach the Top 10 in ATP or WTA history and the third-youngest, after Carling Bassett-Seguso and Bianca Andreescu.

Ben Shelton staged a dramatic finish to claim the Dallas title, saving three championship points and producing the decisive winners when it mattered most. Taylor Fritz controlled more of the match overall and was steadier across three sets, but Shelton delivered the spectacular shots on the crucial points.

Fritz opened strongly, breaking early and taking the first set 6-3 while winning his first 28 first-serve points. The quick indoor courts kept break chances scarce and the crowd split its support between the two Americans, who entered the week ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the United States and No. 7 and No. 9 in the world.

“Fritz was playing very good tennis and I was struggling a lot with what he was throwing at me,” Shelton said. “I tried to be a competitor through and through.” Shelton clawed back in the second set as his groundstrokes began to match his serve. He produced an inside-out forehand winner at 2-2 and then a sequence of forehand, backhand and running forehand pass to break and level the match.

The decider featured long, fast rallies and heavy hitting from both players. Each man reached deep into his arsenal; together they produced 30 aces and a combined winner-to-error ratio that reflected aggressive play. Fritz answered Shelton’s early break with his own big moments, but Shelton broke again and served out a tense finish.

“Once I get a set, I feel pretty confident,” Shelton said later. “Once I’m able to sink my teeth in and feel like I have some sort of rhythm, I just start to loosen up and find my level.” At 6-5 Fritz saved match points, but on the third championship point a semi-shanked Shelton forehand landed just short and the point belonged to Shelton.

“It was a fun match to be a part of, up until the end,” Taylor Fritz

Shelton acknowledged the scale of the win: “I thank God, because I needed something supernatural to end up winning this tournament with all the holes that I was in,” he said. “This is one my favorite atmospheres I ever played in.” The result highlights Shelton’s capacity to elevate his game on the biggest points and marks a signature victory over his countryman.