L’AQUILA, August 19, 2019
The Internazionali Di Tennis Citta’ Dell’Aquila is the lone ATP Challenger tournament this week with the stars at this level of professional tennis competing at the qualifying of the US Open. Nonetheless, the €46,600 clay-court event features an interesting line-up led by World No. 136 Andrej Martin of Slovakia, who is the top seed in the capital city of the Abruzzo region.
Martin will open his title bid on Wednesday against local favourite Gianluigi Quinzi. The 23-year-old Italian eased past Alejandro Gonzalez from Venezuela, winning his first-round match 6-3, 6-1 on Monday at the Circolo Tennis L’Aquila. Quinzi was in total control of the encounter, capitalized on five of his seven break point chances to advance in only 67 minutes.
Over on Center Court, Peter Torebko emerged victorious from the all-German affair with Sebastian Fanselow by the score of 7-5, 6-3. The 31-year-old Wesel resident arrived only one day ahead of his opening match but managed to adapt to the conditions very well. Torebko won 55 per cent of the total points played to prevail after one hour and 37 minutes.
“I learned on Friday that I made it into the tournament here and arrived yesterday. Conditions are different to them in Germany, where I played team competition matches this weekend,” Torebko told Tennis TourTalk. “We had some drizzle in Düsseldorf and here it is very hot with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. There is also the altitude with balls bouncing very high.”
Up next for the German will be 16th seed Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera of Chile. The pair will meet for the first time.
“I only had time to have a quick look at the draw and I didn’t know his name,” Torebko said about his upcoming opponent. “For me it was more important to win my opening match, as I lost the last time against Fanselow and I knew that it’s going to be tough again. It will be useless to know your possible second-round opponent, if you lose in the first round. Consequently the focus was on the match against Sebastian.”
Carlos Taberner was also successful in a match with his compatriot. The 22-year-old Spaniard, who made it into the semi-finals of the Tennis Open Stadtwerke Meerbusch last week, defeated veteran Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-6(5), 7-5. Taberner converted five of his seven break point opportunities to secure victory in two hours and eight minutes. The Valencia resident will next take on the tournament’s No. 2 seed Alejandro Tabilo from Chile.
First- and second-round matches will be played on Tuesday, starting at 10 am local time.
