Gaio and Maestrelli Italy's hopes in the main draw
The 14th Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena South Tyrol will take place from 22 to 29 October. South Tyrol's most important tennis tournament starts tomorrow, Sunday, at 10 a.m. with the qualifying, in which 24 players will play until Monday for the last six free places in the main draw. Thanks to a wild card from the organisers, local hero Patric Prinoth (to open against world number 491 Ryan Nijboer from the Netherlands) and Pietro Orlando Fellin (against Daniel Cukierman from Israel, ATP-363) will also be taking part. No. 1 qualifier is Lukas Klein of Slovakia, who lost last year's final in Gardena-Gröden to Borna Gojo. Klein, as number 178 in the world rankings, would curiously also be number 1 in the main draw and has decided at short notice to start in Gardena-Gröden, which is why he has to play the qualifier.
The main draw with 32 players starts on Monday. Number 1 of the tournament is Abdullah Shelbayh from Jordan. The world number 212 will face Menelaos Efstathiou from Cyprus in the first round. This was the result of the draw on Saturday evening. The hopes of Italian tennis fans are pinned on Federico Gaio and Francesco Maestrelli, seeded No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. Gaio will play the Austrian Maximilian Neuchrist in the opener, Maestrelli will meet Antoine Bellier from Switzerland. Stefano Napolitano, a former Gardena-Gröden winner, is also in the field. The winner of the 2016 tournament is seeded No. 7 this year. Napolitano's opening opponent is Billy Harris and comes from Great Britain. Thanks to a wildcard, three more Italians will play in the main draw: Francesco Forti, Lorenzo Rottoli and Lorenzo Carboni, who gets the vacated wildcard of Enrico Dalla Valle, who slipped directly into the main draw at the last moment.
