Challenger at the home of Jannik Sinner

Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol at the start

14th edition of the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol: Sunday morning at 10 a.m. the qualifiers kick off, Monday; the main draw matches will start with the two blue hopes Federico Gaio and Francesco Maestrelli third and fourth seed in the 50 challenger equipped with a prize money of 36,000 euros.

Gaio in the first round will face Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist, while Maestrelli will take on Switzerland’s Antoine Bellier. That’s the outcome of Saturday night’s draw. Tournament favorite è Abdullah Shelbayh (Jordan) number 212 in the ATP ranking who will face Menelaos Efstathiou (Cyprus) in the first round. Stefano Napolitano, number 7 in the seeding and winner in Ortisei seven years ago, will play against Britain’s Billy Harris. Also playing in the wildcard draw are Francesco Forti, Lorenzo Rottoli and Lorenzo Carboni, who took the wildcard released by Enrico Dalla Valle, who entered at the last moment directly into the main draw.

Qualifying gets underway Sunday morning with 24 players trying to grab one of the last six open spots on the scoreboard. One of those surprise 2 è also Lukas Klein. The Slovakian, a finalist in Val Gardena 12 months ago (he lost in the final to Borna Gojo) decided at the last moment to participate in the tournament again this year. As number 178 in the world rankings he is not only the first seed in the qualifiers, but would also be the player with the best ranking in the draw. Present in the quali thanks to a wild card are home favorite Patric Prinoth (against Dutchman Ryan Nijboer, ATP 491) and Pietro Orlando Fellin (against Israeli Daniel Cukierman, ATP 363)