ORTISEI/STARNBERG, November 12, 2021

The top two seeds of the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol, being held at the Tennis Club Ortisei, advanced to the semi-finals of the €44,820 hard-court event in South Tyrol without dropping a set.

No. 1 seed Oscar Otte of German defeated Briton Ryan Peniston 6-2, 6-4 on Friday afternoon. The World No. 125 didn’t face a break point and capitalized on three of his own nine break-point chances to prevail after one hour and four minutes.

Otte will next take on British teenager Jack Draper. The 19-year-old Englishman outlasted No. 5 seed Federico Gaio, the last Italian player left in the singles draw, 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 6-2 after two hours and 17 minutes. Gaio has missed to reach the stage of the final four in Ortisei for the third consecutive time.

In the bottom half of the draw, Maxime Cressy edged past Marius Copil of Romania 7-6(8), 6-4. The No. 2 seed from the United States, who finished runner-up to Daniel Massur at the Challenger Eckental last week, fired 13 aces and won 98 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in one hour and 30 minutes.

Cressy will next face Mirza Basic. The 30-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina also needed to go distance against Vitaliy Sachko from Ukraine, winning 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2. The encounter lasted one hour and 47 minutes.

In Saturday’s doubles final, the all-Austrian duo of Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler will play Antonio Sancic from Croatia and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn of Austria.