TULLN, September 5, 2022
The ATP Challenger Tour is back in Austria for the second edition of the NÖ Open powered by EVN. The €90,280 clay-court tournament is being held at the TC Tulln.
The historic town Tulln an der Donau is situated in the state of Lower Austria, in the centre of the Tulln Basin stretching to the Vienna Woods in the south, about 40 kilometres northwest of the country’s capital Vienna. Because of its abundance of parks and gardens, Tulln with about 18,000 inhabitants is often referred to as Blumenstadt (“City of Flowers”).
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Main draw action kicked off Monday with No. 4 seed Elias Ymer starting his title bid with a straight-set first-round win over local wild card entry Lukas Neumayer. The 133rd-ranked Swede capitalized on four of his five break-point chances to secure a 6-3, 6-4 victory in one hour and nine minutes. Ymer will next take on the winner of the encounter between Pedro Sousa from Portugal and Italian Francesco Passaro, runner-up at last week’s Challenger Citta’ Di Como.
Norbert Gombos also booked his spot in the second round following a 7-5, 6-4 win over Thiago Agustin Tirante of Argentina. The No. 3 seed from Slovakia outpointed his rival 76-65 in one hour and 38 minutes. Up next for Gombos will be Gianluca Mager of Italy, who fought past his compatriot Flavio Copolli 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-6(7) in two hours and 36 minutes.
Zeppieri beats Schwärzler
Earlier in the day, #NextGenATP Italian Giulio Zeppieri cruised past 16-year-old unranked wild card entry Joel Josef Schwärzler from Austria 6-1, 6-2 in only 50 minutes.
“First of all, I would like to thank ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer and tournament director Florian Leitgeb for the wild card,” said Schwärzler, who was crowned U-16 European singles champion in July and made his debut on the ATP Challenger Tour. “Getting a chance like that is really not something that should be taken for granted. I can only be partially satisfied with my game today. At the beginning I was quite nervous, but then I started to hit my serves quite well – better than in the last few days – and played a few points properly to the end.”
Twenty-year-old Rome native Zeppieri will next play either German qualifier Elmar Ejupovic or eighth-seeded Italian Marco Cecchinato.
