ANDRIA, November 24, 2015
The ATP Challenger Tour is in its final week of the season with the € 42,500 Andria E Castel Del Monte Challenger underway, the last tournament taking place on European soil.
Third seed Ivan Dodig, who just played doubles at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, has come to Southern Italy in order to secure his main draw spot for the Australian Open. The current world number 106 from Croatia won his first round match 6-3, 6-4 against Andrea Pellegrino. Dodig fired 11 aces and broke his opponent’s serve four times to seal victory in one hour and 14 minutes.
The tournament’s number four Dudi Sela cruised past Adrien Bossel, winning 6-1, 6-1 in only 44 minutes. The world number 107 from Israel didn’t face a break point and capitalized on five of his own to set a second round meeting with the winner of the encounter between Andrea Arnaboldi and Croatian qualifier Ante Pavic.
Eitght seed and runner-up from last weeks’s event in Brescia Mirza Basic lost to Italian Roberto Marcora 6-7, 6-0, 5-7. The 26-year-old from Milano hit seven aces and won 60% of his first service points to prevail in one hour and 58 minutes. Marcora will take on fellow countryman Gianluca Mager next, who beat Erik Crepaldi 7-5, 7-6 in one hour and 45 minutes.
On Monday, seventh seed Dustin Brown lost his opening round match against Egor Gerasimov 3-6, 2-6 in just under one hour of play. Consequently, the 30-year-old German missed the chance to improve his ranking (currently world no. 116) in order to enter the main draw of the Australian Open. Normally, six weeks ahead of a Grand Slam the top 104 players are qualified for the main draw.
With xixth seed Michael Berrer another German was more successful winning his first round match 6-2, 6-1 against Italian wild card Julian Ocleppo in only 55 minutes.
The tournament’s number two Illya Marchenko also advanced to the second round gaining a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Filip Horansky in one hour and five minutes. Marchenko will face Romanian qualifier Petru-Alexandru Luncanu next, who beat Dimitar Kuzmanov 7-6, 7-5.
