GENOVA, September 10, 2015

The battle between two Italian veterans headlined second round action on Day 4 at the € 104,500 AON Open Challenger in Genova.

Filippo Volandri stunned third seed Paolo Lorenzi, winning 6-2, 7-5 in their fifth tour meeting. Although, the 34-year-old from Livorno lost his service three times, Volandri converted six of his ten own break points to prevail after one hour and 13 minutes celebrating his third victory over his compatriot, his first since 2006.

Volandri will play another fellow countryman in the quarterfinals, as Marco Cecchinato. The fifth seed defeated Aldin Setkic, winning 6-1, 7-6 in one hour and 23 minutes.

The top-seeds also made it to the stage of the final eight. The tournament’s number one and defending champion Albert Ramos beat Horacio Zeballos in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. The world number 58 from Spain fired six aces, saved all two break-points he faced and capitalized on four of his own to seal victory in 70 minutes. Ramos will face Salvatore Caruso who advanced through a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Ukrainian qualifier Artem Smirnov.

Second seed Robin Haase ended the winning streak of French qualifier Sadio Doumbia, hitting six aces and winning 81% of his first service points to gain a 7-6, 6-3 victory in one hour and 23 minutes. The 28-year-old Dutch will take on Andrey Golubev next. The world number 160 from Kazakhstan defeated Yann Marti, winning 6-3, 6-4 in 74 minutes.

Andrey Golubev (photo: Paolo Cresta)

In Thursday’s night session seventh favourite Nicolas Almagro overcame Edoardo Eremin, winning 6-4, 7-5. The former world number nine from Spain, currently ranked on 114th position, won 82% of his first service points and converted three of his 16 break points to seal victory in one hour and 40 minutes. Almagro will face Tomislav Brkic in the quarterfinals, who cruised past Adam Pavlasek in only 70 minutes 6-3, 6-1.