Dalla Valle beats Demin
Luca Giacomini is the big surprise at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena South Tyrol, the biggest tennis tournament in the country, which is experiencing its 14th edition this week at the tennis hall in Ortisei. Giacomini has already surprisingly survived the qualifying and today celebrated an unexpected 6:3, 6:4 victory in the first round against Louis Wessels from Germany, who is 356 places ahead of him in the world rankings. The 25-year-old from Padua was happy after the match: "It's the first time since 2019 that I made it past the qualifiers at a Challenger and then reached the last 16. Four years ago I had my best ranking in the world with 460, but then I had abdominal muscle problems and had to take a break for one and a half years after a shoulder operation. Now I hope to come back even stronger," said Giacomini, who will face Illya Martchenko of Ukraine in the round of 16 on Thursday. The former world number 49 (2016) is in good form, only losing to Dennis Novak in the final at the Challenger in Hamburg last week. Today in the first round, Marchenko defeated young Italian Lorenzo Rottoli 6-4, 6-4 after trailing 2-4 in the second set.
As the fourth Italian after Federico Gaio, Francesco Forti (they will play each other on Thursday at 6 pm for a place in the quarter-finals) and Giacomini, Enrico Dalla Valle also reached the last 16 today. He beat the young Russian Yaroslav Demin 7:6 (3), 6:4 and finished the match with his 17th ace after almost two hours. Demin is only number 1157 in the world rankings but he is number 4 in the ITF junior (under 18) rankings. Demin was in the junior final at Wimbledon this year and he also participated in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu in China last week where he finished fifth. "He is a good young player who has already achieved excellent results and who was ranked number one in the juniors. I didn't play my best tennis today but I served very well," said Dalla Valle, who again faces a tough task against a teenager in the last 16. Jordanian Abdullah Shelbayh is the tournament's No. 1 and also only 19 years old. "I'm sure he's a very good player, but I know I have my chances. I hope I can play even better tomorrow," Dalla Valle said.
The round of 16 matches have started in the afternoon. The first player to qualify for Friday's quarter-finals is Poland's Maks Kasnikowski, who eliminated another Belgian after No. 2 seed Gauthier Onclin. Kasinkowski won 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (4) after 2:11 hours against Michael Geerts and qualified for the quarter-finals at a Challenger for the third time this year after Modena and Grodzisk Mazowiecki. Britain's Billy Harris also put in a strong performance, not having to fend off a single break point in a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over qualifier Hynek Barton of the Czech Republic. Harris' next opponent is a qualifier: Danill Glinka from Estonia celebrated his fourth win in a row in Gardena-Gröden today and fended off all three break points against himself in the 6:4, 6:4 against Swiss Antoine Bellier.
