SAN MARINO/STARNBERG, July 25, 2026
The 2026 Internazionali di Tennis San Marino Open officially got underway with the draw ceremony for both the qualifying and main draws of the ATP Challenger 125 tournament. The 33rd edition of the prestigious event, offering a prize purse of €203,900, will be played through August 2 on the clay courts of the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio in Fonte dell’Ovo.
Qualifying action begins on Sunday with the first 12 matches scheduled from 10 a.m. local time under the supervision of Carmelo Di Dio, assisted by referee Riccardo Ragazzini. Admission is free for the opening day, while the final round of qualifying will be contested on Monday ahead of the start of the main draw.
Leading the field is Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta, the world No. 108 and top seed, who arrives in San Marino after capturing four ATP Challenger titles already this season. He will open his campaign against a qualifier.
Second seed Otto Virtanen of Finland, currently ranked No. 125 and set to climb further after reaching the final of the Tampere Challenger, faces one of the tournament’s three wild cards, 21-year-old Italian Filippo Romano, in the opening round.
Among the other title contenders are third seed Vilius Gaubas of Lithuania, who meets France’s Luka Pavlovic, and fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili. The former world No. 16 and five-time ATP Tour champion has been handed one of the toughest opening matches of the tournament against former world No. 27 Laslo Djere of Serbia.
Another blockbuster first-round encounter will see seventh seed Hugo Dellien, fresh from lifting the Challenger trophy in Trieste, take on Spain’s former world No. 36 Pedro Martinez.
Former champion Alexandre Muller, who won the San Marino title in 2024 and climbed as high as world No. 38 last year, begins his campaign against Italy’s Stefano Napolitano.
A total of eight Italians are featured in the main draw, with two all-Italian first-round matches guaranteed. Sixth seed Andrea Pellegrino, runner-up in San Marino in 2023, will face 20-year-old wild card Carlo Alberto Caniato. Pellegrino has enjoyed an impressive season, reaching the fourth round at the Internazionali d’Italia with victories over Arthur Fils and Frances Tiafoe before losing to Jannik Sinner, and also advanced through qualifying at Roland Garros.
The second Italian derby will pit former world No. 16 Marco Cecchinato against Franco Agamenone. Cecchinato, a recent Challenger finalist in Milan, captured the biggest title of his early career in San Marino in 2013 before going on to reach the semifinals of the 2018 French Open.
Elsewhere, eighth seed Francesco Maestrelli opens against Austria’s Lukas Neumayer, while 18-year-old Italian prospect Jacopo Vasamì will face a qualifier.
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The qualifying tournament also features strong local interest, with 11 Italians among the 24-player field. They include Federico Bondioli, Enrico Dalla Valle, Francesco Forti, Lorenzo Angelini, Manuel Mazza, Alberto Bronzetti, Gabriele Piraino, and Tommaso Compagnucci, as well as wild cards Enrico Baldisserri and Samuel Zannoni.
Also receiving a wild card is Malta’s Alex De Gabriele, whose participation is part of a broader cooperation agreement between the San Marino Tennis Federation and the Malta Tennis Federation, as explained by tournament director Nicola Lombardini during the event’s official presentation.
