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Before Andreas Seppi's big appearance today at 7 pm, two co-favourites from Italy have reached the last 16 at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol. No. 3 seed Luca Nardi won his opening match on centre court against Alibek Kachmazov from Russia 7-6 (4), 6-4, followed by Giulio Zeppieri (No. 5) without losing a set 6-3, 6-4 against Petr Nouza from the Czech Republic. Kachmazov and Nouza had survived the qualification in Gardena-Gröden.

Stefano Travaglia, Nerman Fatic and Borna Gojo are the first three players to reach the round of 16 at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol. Travaglia (ATP number 305) won a comeback match and defeated 19-year-old Francesco Maestrelli (ATP number 184) in the Italian duel 2:6, 6:3 and 6:4. Meastrelli immediately took a 4:0 lead, in the second set Travaglia entered the match better and managed to even the score after the break in the eighth game. In the final set another break in the ninth game was decisive. After almost two hours of play Travaglia ended the match with an ace.

Beim Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol fiebern alle dem ersten Auftritt von Andreas Seppi entgegen. Der Kalterer wird bei seinem letzten Profi-Turnier am Dienstag in der ersten Runde um 19 Uhr gegen den an Nummer 4 gesetzten Yannick Hanfmann aus Deutschland (Nummer 154 der Welt) antreten. Am „Super-Dienstag“ stehen in St. Ulrich morgen ab 10 Uhr insgesamt elf Einzel und ein Doppel auf dem Programm. Alle acht Gesetzten sind schon im Einsatz, darunter auch die Azzurri Luca Nardi (Nummer 3) und Giulio Zeppieri (Nummer 5), die gegen einen Qualifikanten antreten müssen. Vor dem Seppi-Match steht das italienische Duell zwischen Flavio Cobolli (Nummer 6) und Lorenzo Giustino auf dem Programm.

Am Sonntag hat die Qualifikation beim Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol begonnen. Dank einer Wild Card der Veranstalter durften auch 4 Südtiroler mitspielen. Aber für das Quartett ist das Heimturnier schon vorbei.

Andreas Seppi will play his last tournament as a professional at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol on Tuesday evening against the number 4 seed Yannick Hanfmann from Germany. This was the result of the draw on Saturday. Seppi will end his great career, which has brought him up to 18th place in the world rankings, at the € 45,730 tournament in Ortisei next week. From May 2005 onwards, he was in the top 100 of the world rankings for more than 15 years. He has won 3 ATP tournaments and played 67 Grand Slam tournaments. Seppi lost the only duel against Hanfmann at the Challenger five years ago in Bergamo with 4:6, 2:6.