AUGSBURG/STARNBERG, August 23, 2023
After a three-year hiatus the ATP Challenger Tour is back in Augsburg, Germany this week for the second edition of the Schwaben Open. Following the retirement of top seed Hernan Casanova of Argentina due to a back injury in the first round of the €36,000 clay-court event, World No. 200 Benjamin Hassan remains the highest-seeded player left in the singles draw.
The second favourite from Lebanon defeated German qualifier Daniel Masur in his opening match in straight sets and backed up his win against former Junior World No. 1 Gilles Arnaud Bailly of Belgium with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on Wednesday. The 28-year-old Hassan, who was born in Merzig, Germany, struck eight aces and won 79 per cent of his first-service points to advance in one hour and 21 minutes.
Hassan will next take on No. 7 seed Timo Stodder. The last German standing in Augsburg cruised past US-American Andres Martin 6-1, 6-1 in only 58 minutes.
“I went into the match with a positive mindset and knew that he wasn’t as experienced on clay,” said Stodder, who played college tennis for the University of Tennessee.
“I had played against him on hard court in a prize money tournament in the States before and lost by a close margin. I tried to give him high-spin balls, which led to him making many errors. Additionally, my serving was really strong today.”
In other quarterfinal action, Italian qualifier Gianmarco Ferrari will take on Carlos Taberner. In the top half of the draw, Moez Echargui of Tunisia will play Brazilian qualifier Nicolas Zanellato and Spaniard Oriol Roca Batalla is facing Nino Serdarusic from Croatia.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an
