ORTISEI, November 10, 2015
The favourites of the € 64,000 Sparkassen ATP Challenger stepped into action in Ortisei on Tuesday when top-seed Ricardas Berankis started his title quest with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory over German youngster Maximilian Marterer. The world number 82 from Lithuania battled back from being down 2-4 in the opening set and 3-5 in the second frame. After losing the tie-break, he had to go the distance, gaining the decisive break in the seventh game to prevail after two hours and 11 minutes.
Berankis will take on Ramkumar Ramanathan. The 21-year-old from India defeated Croatian qualifier Viktor Galovic, winning 7-6, 7-5 in one hour and 36 minutes.
Fifth seed Michael Berrer won this first main draw match since reaching the semi-finals in Bogota in July. In the last six tournaments, the 35-year-old German either didn’t manage to qualify or lost in the opening round. In Ortisei, Berrer beat qualifier Kevin Krawietz in an-all-German-affair, winning two tie-breaks 7-4, 9-7 in one hour and 25 minutes. Berrer will meet on Wednesday Serbian Laslo Djere.
Michael Berrer advanced to the second round (photo: Gian-Luca Gatto)
Lorenzo Sonego emerged victorious from the battle of the qualifiers, gaining a 6-4, 6-1 win against Edoardo Eremin. The world number 426 from Torino was very solid on his second service, winning 78% of the points to prevail in 63 minutes. “I adapted pretty well to the fast surface here and played a decent match,” Sonego told afterwards, taking on third seed Rajeev Ram next. The world number 99 from the United States beat Nikola Mektic 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 11 minutes.
With Alessandro Giannessi another Italian advanced to the second round. The 25-year-old from La Spezia defeated Laurynas Grigelis, winning 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 in the most spectacular encounter of the day. Grigelis had led 5-2 in the final set, before Giannessi evened score in the tenth game. The Lithuanian had another chance to serve out in the twelfth game but eventually lost the tie-break 0-7 and therewith the match after two hours and 14 minutes. “It was a weird match. Grigelis seemed to have physical problems but he was able to play from the baseline. I am happy that it worked out for me in the end,” Giannessi told, facing Aldin Setkic next.
Maximilian Neuchrist (photo: Marco Wanker)
Dmitry Tursunov’s comeback has come to an early end. The 32-year-old Russian, who was granted a wild card and appeared in his first singles main draw match since the US-Open 2014, lost to Austrian qualifier Maximilian Neuchrist 5-7, 7-5, 2-6. The world nuber 407 fired 18 aces and won 75% of his first service points to finish the encounter after two hours and four minutes.
In the final match of the day, second seed Evgeny Donskoy ousted Federico Gaio, winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. The world number 94 from Russia saved eight of the nine break point chances he faced, converting three of his own to seal victory in one hour and 35 minutes.
Evgeny Donskoy (photo: Marco Wanker)
