VICENZA, June 1, 2018

Three Italians found their way into the stage of the final four of the €64,000 Internazionali di Tennis Citta’ Di Vicenza, the lone ATP Challenger event taking place this week.

Matteo Donati rallied past #NextGenATP Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-7(1), 7-6(2), 6-3 on a sunny and hot Friday afternoon in northeastern Italy. The wild card entry from Alessandria saved eight of the 11 break points he faced, converting four of his own to secure victory in two hours and 26 minutes.

“I didnt’ play a good tie-break in the first set when I made a couple of unforced errors. I managed to change my game and from then on it became better,” Donati told. “However, it was still tough. I think we both were tired in the second set, as we had to face about 30 degrees on court today.” 

The World No. 236 will appear in his second semi-final of the season after Ostrava last month. “It was a bad start into the year with very few wins. I played very badly on hard courts where I was hoping to do better, then we went to Japan where I felt very good but couldn’t achieve good results. It improved during the European clay-court swing and now I am happy with the results here.”

Donati will next take on compatriot No. 5 seed Salvatore Caruso, who emerged victorious from the all-Italian-encounter with Stefano Travaglia. The latter was forced to retire trailing 6-7, 1-2 due to a right biceps injury.

Gian Marco Moroni defeated Guilherme Clezar of Brazil 6-3, 6-2. The 20-year-old Rome native won 62 per cent of the total points played to advance in one hour and 11 minutes. He will next play Hugo Dellien of Bolivia. The fourth favourite cruised past Roberto Quiroz from Ecuador 6-1, 6-0. The encounter only laseted 51 minutes.