ORTISEI, October 5, 2017

Organizers of the Sparkasse ATP Challenger Val Gardena, held from 7 to 15 October 2017 at the Tennis Club Ortisei, announced on Wednesday the four wild cards into the main draw of the €64,000 event.

The Italian trio of Alessandro Giannessi, Lorenzo Sonego and Matteo Donati will be joined by #NextGenATP Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis. The 21-year-old competed in the main draw of three Grand Slams this season and finished runner-up to Sam Querrey at the ATP 250 event in Los Cabos.

“Kokkinakis is a very intersting name among the young guns on the tour. So we decided to award him our wild card,” tournament director Ambros Hofer stated.

The Adelaide native reached a career high ranking at World No. 69 in June 2015 but had to cope with injuries and dropped in the ATP rankings to 212nd position.

The tournament will start with the qualifying on Saturday.

“All wild cards for the qualifying will be awarded to our local players from South Tyrol,” Hofer told.