TODI, July 6, 2015

Can a tennis tournament be the most important sporting event of a region? The answer is yes, as you can see with the Internazionali dell’Umbria, held in Todi. The city, a commune of about 20,000 inhabitants located in the province of Perugia in central Italy, was founded by the ancient Italic people of the Umbri in the eighth to seventh century BC. Having such an old birth Todi is culturally rich city with numerous monuments of great historical value.

The Internazionali dell’Umbria, a € 42,500 ATP Challenger event, is played on the clay courts of the TC Todi taking place from July 5 to 12. The club was founded in 1971 in the small village of Ponta Naia. It has nine tennis courts (five clay courts, three hard courts and one with synthetic grass), a football pitch, a sauna, a massage centre and the restaurant “Matchpoint”. Centre court has a capacity of about 600 seats and the admission is free of charge.

Aljaz Bedene is Todi’s top favourite

The tournament’s top-seed Aljaz Bedene, one of five top 100-players in the draw, looks to retain his crown, facing Gerald Melzer in the opening round. The 25-year-old Brit, who made it into the second round of Wimbledon, will face the Austrian for the third time on the tour. Bedene won the two previous meetings, which took place in 2009.

Second seed Dusan Lajovic will face the tournament’s last direct acceptance Nicolas Kicker for the first time as well as Todi’s number three Blaz Rola playing Christian Lindell in the opening round.