Cristian Garin admits he struggled to find the motivation to play on the Challenger circuit and that winning a lot of matches but not seeing it reflect that well on the ranking can be pretty frustrating.
After breaking into the top-100 for the first time in his career in late 2018, Garin soon established himself as an ATP-level player. Across the next three and a half years, the Chilean won five ATP titles - reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at 2022 Wimbledon - and also achieved a career-high ranking of No. 17 in the world.
Garin, who celebrated his 29th birthday in May, started to struggle heavily with his form in the second part of 2022 and it all led to him exiting the top-100 in 2023 January. It didn't take long before the former world No. 17 started appearing on the Challenger Tour.
While Garin split his time between ATP and Challenger tournaments last year, this year he has been mostly competing on the Challenger Tour - he has appeared in only 12 main-level matches this year and owns a mere 5-7 record. But on the Challenger Tour, the Chilean has had much more success as he has won two titles there and made a couple of semifinals.
But while Garin, has done solidly on the lower-tier, he is still ranked at No. 121 in the world and hasn't been inside the top-100 since last year's April.
Garin: I get upset... You win 30 Challenger matches and you are still ranked outside the top-30
In the beginning, it was difficult to find motivation. The cities, conditions are not the best, different from when you play the best tournaments. The Challengers are tough. Sometimes I get very upset because you go a long way to win 30 matches and youre still outside the top 100. Its way too much," the five-time ATP champion told The Guardian.
After losing in the Wimbledon second round as a lucky loser, Garin entered the ATP tournaments in Bastad and Umag directly, but lost in the first round. At this ongoing Cincinnati Masters, the 29-year-old Chilean tried to earn a main draw spot through the qualifying but failed to do so after losing in the qualies first round to Martin Landaluce.
