CORDENONS/STARNBERG, February 5, 2026

The 2026 season at Eurosporting Cordenons will begin with a major change: the club’s two international tennis tournaments, long considered the flagship events of the sports center in Cordenons, Italy, will be moved up to July. It marks a small but significant revolution, as the date change comes after many years of tradition—the men’s tournament will celebrate its 23rd edition—and carries important implications for both players and organizers.

The men’s ATP Challenger will now be played from July 12 to 19, followed immediately by the women’s ITF tournament from July 19 to 25, which will reach its 11th edition this year. Traditionally, the ATP Challenger in Cordenons took place in the first or second week of August, a time slot that had become increasingly difficult for players and less attractive for organizers due to its proximity to the US Open in New York, the final Grand Slam of the season, held in the last week of the month.

For several years, tournament director Serena Raffin had been in discussions with the ATP to secure a different position in the calendar, with the clear aim of attracting a stronger entry list and drawing more top-level players. That opportunity finally materialized with the release of the 2026 ATP Challenger calendar, which granted Cordenons a far more favorable date, scheduled right after the Trieste Challenger held the previous week. This new arrangement will allow players to compete in two prestigious international tournaments in Friuli Venezia Giulia within just a few kilometers of each other. For fans, it means a particularly exciting prospect: July will be a month dedicated entirely to tennis in the region.

There is already a strong precedent for this kind of Friulian tennis “double swing,” and it has often featured names who are now rewriting the history of the sport. In September 2020, for example, the Cordenons ATP Challenger followed the Trieste event with a main draw that included the then-teenage Carlos Alcaraz—now world No. 1 and fresh off his Australian Open triumph and Career Slam at just 22 years and 272 days—alongside Lorenzo Musetti, now world No. 5 and a quarterfinalist in Melbourne, and Luciano Darderi, who is now knocking on the door of the top 20.