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.”

Luca Van Assche used the Open Quimper Bretagne Occidentale to arrest a run of mixed results and collect his fifth ATP Challenger title. The 21-year-old Frenchman rallied from a set down to beat Swiss alternate Remy Bertola 3–6, 6–1, 7–5 in the final of the ATP Challenger Tour 125 indoor event. The match lasted two hours and three minutes; Van Assche struck nine aces, won 80 percent of his first-serve points and broke serve three times to complete the victory.

Ranked No. 165, Van Assche had earlier dismantled defending champion Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg in a near three-hour semifinal. The Quimper success is his first title of the season and the 10th time a Frenchman has won this tournament. He earned €30,460 in prize money and 125 ATP ranking points.

Van Assche’s career arc has been shaped by early junior success and steady transition to the pro game. He reached junior world No. 1 and won the 2021 Roland Garros boys’ singles title, defeating Arthur Fils in the final. He broke into the Top 100 in April 2023 at age 18 and had already secured three Challenger trophies by that time. He has also competed at the 2023 and 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals. His endurance has been a hallmark: he famously saved two championship points to defeat Ugo Humbert in the longest ATP Challenger final at Pau in 2023, a match that lasted three hours and 56 minutes.

Born in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert to a Belgian father and an Italian mother, Van Assche moved to France as a child and began playing tennis at four in Aix-en-Provence. He trained at Pôle France in Poitiers at age 12 and continues his studies in mathematics at Paris Dauphine University. He speaks French, Italian and English and is nicknamed “Lucho.”

During the Quimper trophy presentation he thanked new coach Sébastien Villette, noted his father had travelled from Paris to be present and acknowledged the crowd’s support. “I did a very good junior’s career. It was good for me. I have gained a lot of experience. It helped me a lot for my senior’s career, but I am still young. I learn every day at every tournament,” Van Assche said during a tournament in Valencia two years ago.

At the Bahrain Open in Manama, 24-year-old Kyrian Jacquet captured the title, beating Luca Nardi 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. The world No. 128 converted five of nine break-point opportunities and prevailed in two hours and 13 minutes after victories over Christopher O’Connell, Yannick Hanfmann, Jacob Fearnley and Mattia Bellucci.

The ATP Challenger Tour resumes with two standout stops as the indoor Open Quimper Bretagne Occidentale and the outdoor Bahrain Open begin this week.

The 17th edition of the Open Quimper Bretagne Occidentale moves to a new venue for the first time, staged at the Kostum Park – À Nous La Vie in Quimper. Known for its medieval old town, Quimper combines regional identity with a long indoor Challenger tradition. French players have dominated the event historically, with a home favorite lifting the trophy nine times. Pierre-Hugues Herbert (2014, 2024) and Grégoire Barrère (2019, 2023) have each won the title twice.

That trend is likely to continue in 2026, with at least eleven French players in the singles main draw. The bottom half of the draw is headlined by 2017 champion Adrian Mannarino. Now 37 and a five-time ATP Tour champion, Mannarino arrives on a wild card and opens against Switzerland’s Remy Bertola. Another wild card, Benoit Paire, meets seventh seed Benjamin Bonzi in the first round. Fourth seed Quentin Halys must get past Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Hüsler in his opener. Defending champion Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg begins against a qualifier.

The field is led by American Aleksandar Kovacevic, the world No. 56 who claimed two of his six Challenger titles last season. Kovacevic reached the Brisbane semifinals on the ATP Tour to open his season but followed that with first-round exits in Auckland and at the Australian Open and is seeking his first match win since. He opens in Quimper against Frenchman Clément Tabur. Spain’s Pedro Martínez, fresh from victory at the Bengaluru Open two weeks ago, and Nikoloz Basilashvili are among the international contenders for the title and 125 ATP ranking points. Young players Justin Engel and Thomas Faurel can also cause upsets.

In Manama the fifth edition of the Bahrain Open returns as an ATP Challenger 125 Showcase Tournament on outdoor hard courts, having previously been named ATP Challenger of the Year in its category. Four Top 100 players headline the draw: Alexei Popyrin, Mattia Bellucci, Jacob Fearnley and Filip Misolic. Popyrin, the top seed, faces Ugo Blanchet as he seeks his third Challenger title in addition to three ATP Tour trophies. Bellucci, Fearnley and Misolic all open with challenging first-round assignments, and fifth seed Yannick Hanfmann, who impressed in Melbourne, will meet a qualifier.