SAN MARINO/STARNBERG, July 20, 2025
The run of Matteo Gigante at the 32nd edition of the Internazionali di Tennis San Marino Open came to an end in Saturday’s semifinals. The 23-year-old Italian, seeded third and ranked World No. 137, was hampered by a heavily bandaged right knee and lost 7-6(5), 6-4 to Slovakia’s Lukas Klein after one hour and 38 minutes of play on the clay courts of the Centro Cassa di Risparmio di Montecchio.
Klein, ranked No. 186, produced a solid performance on serve, saving all four break points he faced, and played a composed tiebreak to edge the opening set. In the second, he broke Gigante early and held his nerve in a tense final game, where the Italian, backed by a vocal home crowd, saved three match points and had three chances to break back. Ultimately, a forehand return wide on the fourth match point sealed the win for Klein, who had previously knocked out top seed Valentin Royer and seventh seed Lukas Neumayer.
Klein now moves into Sunday night’s final, where he will face Croatian rising star Dino Prizmic, who booked his spot earlier in the day.
Prizmic outlasts Tirante in three-set battle
The 19-year-old from Split, currently ranked No. 157 and the tournament’s fifth seed, outlasted No. 2 seed Thiago Tirante of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought semifinal lasting nearly two and a half hours.
Prizmic came out firing in the opening set, capitalizing on a slew of unforced errors from Tirante to race to a 5-0 lead before wrapping up the set in just over 25 minutes. He appeared poised to run away with the match after breaking early in the second set, but double faults gave Tirante an opening. The Argentine broke back immediately and eventually forced a deciding set after a deep return at 5-4 gave him the second set.
The third set stayed on serve until the seventh game, when Prizmic turned up the pressure with aggressive baseline play and broke for 4-3. He consolidated the break and served out the match to reach his fourth Challenger final of 2025, adding to titles in Zagreb and Bratislava, and a runner-up finish in Milan.
Into his FOURTH consecutive Challenger final
19-year-old Dino Prizmic overcomes Tirante 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to punch his ticket to the championship match in San Marino#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/x5JDNwZaq1
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 19, 2025
“It was a real battle against a very solid clay-courter,” said Prizmic, currently fourth in the Race to Jeddah for the Next Gen ATP Finals. “I played very well in the first set, then lost a bit of focus, but I managed to reset and find my rhythm again. I’m happy to be in the final. I’ve tried to focus on one match at a time without thinking too much about the result. Do I have a preference for my opponent? Not really—both are quality players. I’ll just try to rest and be ready.”
Doubles Title for Drzewiecki and Ho
The tournament also crowned its first champions earlier in the day, as the top-seeded duo of Poland’s Karol Drzewiecki and Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei claimed the doubles title. They defeated the Slovak-Ukrainian team of Milos Karol and Vitaliy Sachko 7-5, 7-6(3) in one hour and 41 minutes.
Karol and Sachko had five set points in the first set, leading 5-3 before losing momentum. Drzewiecki and Ho seized the opportunity and maintained their composure in the second-set tiebreak to seal the championship.
For the 29-year-old Drzewiecki, it marks his 15th ATP Challenger doubles title, and third of the season following wins in Cordoba and Oeiras. For Ho, 25, it’s his sixth title of the year and ninth final in 2025, further establishing the left-hander as one of the most consistent doubles players on the circuit.
