ORTISEI, November 13, 2015

The top three-seeds at the € 64,000 Sparkassen ATP Challenger Val Gardena advanced to the semi-finals in Ortisei.

In the longest match on Friday between two similiar type of players Lasjo Djere defeated Aldin Setkic in three tie-break sets. It was an even affair from the beginning until the end. The 20-year-old Serbian, who fired 18 aces, gained a 4-2 lead in the opening set but he could only capitalize on his fourth set point in the tie-break to close the frame. Djere also had match points in the tenth game of the second set but Setkic saved both to take the match the distance. In the final set, it was the world number 249 from Bosnia-Herzegovina, getting a 5-3 lead but wasn’t able to serve the match out. After three hours and two minutes, Djere reached his third semi-finals of the season on the ATP Challenger Tour, following the tournaments in Casablanca and Prosetejov.

Ricardas Berankis (photo: Alex Runggaldier)

The youngster from Serbia will face top-seed Ricardas Berankis in the stage of the final four. The world number 82 beat Mirza Basic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Berankis didn’t face a break point, converting two of his own to seal victory in only 59 minutes. “I am pretty satisfied with my performance today and I hope that I will be able to continue like this tomorrow. Djere had to play a hard match today,” Berankis told with regard to the semi-finals on Saturday.

The two remaining favourites also advanced to the next round. Third seed Rajeev Ram defeated the tournament’s number six and last Italian in the singles draw Luca Vanni, winning 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes. The 31-year-old US-American will take on second seed Evgeny Donskoy on Saturday. The world number 94 from Russia beat Marton Fucsovics in the final match of the day, leading 6-4, 3-6, 5-1 before the 23-year-old Hungarian was forced to retire due to lower back injury.