Nardi, Travaglia and Bellucci play in the main draw - Two South Tyroleans in the qualifiers
Tennis tournament in South Tyrol begins on Sunday with the qualifiers. The matches in the main draw start on Monday. At the tournament in Ortisei, which is endowed with 45,730 euros, Andreas Seppi will celebrate his farewell as a professional next week. The player from Caldaro will play his first match on Tuesday, 25 October at 7 pm.
The three wild cards for the main draw have been awarded by the Italian Tennis Federation to Luca Nardi, Stefani Travaglia and Mattia Bellucci. The 19-year-old Nardi is one of the greatest young talents in Italian tennis. He is ranked 130th in the world and will thus probably be seeded No. 4 in Ortisei behind Tomas Machac, Nicolas Jarry and Fernando Verdasco. This week, Nardi lost to Corentin Moutet at the ATP tournament in Naples after a tough battle. Travaglia is now only number 316 in the ATP computer, but the 30-year-old was ranked 60 at the start of 2021. He played in the Challenger in Vilnius this week and reached the last 16. Bellucci is 21 years old and has been ranked 186th, his best ranking, since Monday after his triumph at the Challenger in Saint-Tropez. He will play today at the Challenger in Vilnius for a place in the semi-finals and his eighth consecutive victory.
Two South Tyrolean players will also be in the qualifiers, which will be drawn on Saturday at 6pm. Patric Prinoth and Gabriel Moroder from Val Gardena have received a wild card. "We also contacted Alexander Weis, South Tyrol's number 3 in the world rankings," says tournament director Ambros Hofer. "But the man from Bolzano (ATP number 415) has declined because he is still engaged in the semi-finals today at the $25,000 tournament in Santa Margherita di Pula in Sardinia on clay."
