ORTISEI/STARNBERG, October 27, 2022
Four players from Italy have reached the quarterfinals of the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol. After Luca Nardi and Giulio Zeppieri on Wednesday, Andrea Vavassori and Flavio Cobolli also made it into the stage of the last eight of the €45,730 hard-court event.
Vavassori eliminated qualifier Sandro Kopp from Austria 6-3, 6-4. The 27-year-old from Torino fired 17 aces and won 78 per cent of his first-service points to advance in one hour and five minutes.
“I played very well today and served 17 aces. If you serve well here, you’ve done most of it already,” said Vavassori after reaching his fifth quarterfinal of the season.
The World No. 197 will next challenge top seed Tomas Machac. The 115th-ranked Czech defeated Frenchman Antoine Escoffier 6-3, 6-1 in 66 minutes.
Sixth-seeded Cobolli came back from 1-5 down to beat last week’s Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup champion Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland 7-5, 6-1. The World No. 167 from Florence converted five of his 10 break-point chances to prevail after one hour and 15 minutes.
“I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but then I did well. Tomorrow I have a very a really tough match waiting for me,” said Cobolli, who will next take on Lukas Rosol. The Czech veteran edged past Marco Trungelliti of Argentina 7-6(6), 7-6(4). The encounter lasted one hour and 50 minutes.
