POZOBLANCO/STANRBERG, July 19, 2022
The ATP Challenger Tour is back in the province of Cordoba, in southern Spain for the 2022 Open Ciudad de Pozoblanco. Main draw action at the €45,730 hard-court event began with a day filled of upsets. Antoine Bellier of Switzerland knocked out World No. 111 and top seed Nuno Borges from Portugal 6-4, 6-1 on Monday evening under the lights of the C.D. Open Tenis Ciudad de Pozoblanco.
The 203rd-ranked from Geneva fired 12 aces and won 94 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in one hour and nine minutes. Bellier, who lifted his maiden Challenger trophy at the San Luis Open in Mexico in April this year, will next take on the winner of the encounter between Frenchman Maxime Janvier and Nicholas David Ionel of Romania.
In the bottom half of the draw, local wild card entry Alejandro Moro Canas upset defending champion and sixth favourite Altug Celikbilek of Turkey 7-6(3), 6-3. The 21-year-old Madrid native saved both break points he faced and converted one of his own five break-point chances to prevail after one hour and 36 minutes. Up next for Canas will be either Fabian Marozsan of Hungary of Russian veteran Andrey Kuznetsov.
Elsewhere, No. 7 seed Gregoire Barrere of France defeated Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-4, 6-3 and fourth-seeded Frenchman Hugo Grenier beat Alastair Gray of Great Britain 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round.
🎾 Hoy vamos a tener una jornada de tenis… ¡APASIONANTE!
Y comienza muy prontito en el Polideportivo Municipal, así que os dejamos el orden del día de este 19 de julio en el Open Ciudad de Pozoblanco ‘Covap’ – Memorial Fabián Dorado. pic.twitter.com/mInsXs4JM2
— Open Ciudad de Pozoblanco (@PozoblancoOpen) July 19, 2022
