ORTISEI, October 9, 2018

Liam Caruana and Oscar Otte are the first two players to advance to the second round of the €64,000 Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol. Caruano rallied past French veteran Stephane Robert 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-2 on Monday.

Oscar Otte (photo: Marco Wanker)

The 20-year-old wild card entry from Italy fired 16 aces and saved one match point in the tie-break of the second set to prevail after one hour and 50 minutes. Caruana awaits the winner of the encounter between top seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France and Tomislav Brkic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Oscar Otte also came back from a set down to fight past fellow German Daniel Masur 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(4). The 25-year-old from Cologne won eight points less than his opponent but kept his nerves in the decider to secure victory in one hour and 44 minutes. Otte will next take on either German qualifier Tobias Simon or No. 5 seed Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.