ORTISEI/STARNBERG, October 29, 2022
Lukas Klein and Borna Gojo will compete in Sunday’s singles final of the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol. Klein edged past Andrea Vavassori of Italy 7-6(5), 6-4 in the stage of the last four on Saturday.
The No. 7 seed from Slovakia didn’t face a break point and capitalized on one of his own four break-point chances to secure victory in one hour and 26 minutes.
“I saw Vavassori’s match against Machac yesterday. Andrea really serves very well. I knew that I had to stay focused on my serve and not give him many chances,” said Klein, who reached his third final on the ATP Challenger Tour this season and is seeking his third trophy following his triumphs Troisdorf, Germany and Alicante, Spain.
“I don’t look at the numbers. I want to play well, play my game and if I win, I’m happy.”
Later in the day, Gojo cruised past third-seeded Italian Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 6-1. The World No. 182 from Croatia struck 10 aces and won 88 per cent of his first-service points to advance in only 45 minutes.
All aboard the Borna Gojo Express! 🚄
The 🇭🇷 defeats Cobolli 6-1, 6-1 in just 45 minutes to advance to his second #ATPChallenger final of the year 👏
📸R.Strimmer/ChallengerOrtisei pic.twitter.com/MHZoiPfi7u
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 29, 2022
“It was a really good match for me. I tried to stay aggressive and made almost no mistakes,” said Gojo, who finished runner-up to Chun-hsin Tseng at the Bengaluru Open in February. The 24-year-old Split native is bidding for his maiden Challenger crown.
“The conditions suit me,” said Gojo, who will meet Klein for the first time. “I know him very well, we are the same age and he has been playing very well the last few months and I watched a couple of his matches.”
Istomin/Karlovskiy triumph in doubles
In other action, Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan and Evgeniy Karlovskiy of Russia captured the doubles title. The pair defeated Italian Marco Bortolotti and Sergio Martos Gornes from Spain 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 10 minutes.
By winning their first team title, Istomin and Karlovskiy split €2,670 in prize money and earned 80 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
