BARLETTA, April 11, 2016

After an absence of four years, the ATP Challenger Tour returns to Barletta this week for the €42,500 Open Citta’ Della Disfida.

The prestigious tournament features an exceptional array of past champions including Rafael Nadal, who claimed his maiden Challenger career title here in 2003, Richard Gasquet and Sergi Bruguera.

This year’s top seed is Rogerio Dutra Silva opening his title bid against former world number 33 Andrey Golubev. Second favourite is Roberto Carballés-Baena, who is facing Uladzimir Ignatik in the first round.

Two time Challenger runner-up this season and third seed Adam Pavlasek was in action on Monday, who benefitted from the retirement of Andrea Arnaboldi leading 7-5, 3-0 after 62 minutes due to hypotension.

The tournament’s number five Andrej Martin defeated Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 7-6. The world number 127 from Slovakia capitalized on four of his six break point chances to prevail in one hour and 55 minutes.

Italian wild card Edoardo Eremin knocked out sixth seed Igor Sijsling, winning 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. The world number 363 from Cassine sent down seven aces, winning 73% of his first service points to advance after two hours and five minutes.