KARLSRUHE/STARNBERG, July 10, 2023
Alejandro Tabilo of Chile is the champion of the inaugural Tennis Open Karlsruhe held at the Tennisclub Rüppurr 1929. The No. 8 seed of the ATP Challenger Tour 75 clay-court event benefited from the retirement of fourth-seeded Italian Giulio Zeppieri in Sunday’s singles final.
Tabilo battled his way to the championship match through the bottom half of the draw with wins over local wild card entries Henri Squire and Liam Gavrielides as well as Leandro Riedi of Switzerland and Timofey Skatov from Kazakhstan.
In the pair’s first meeting on a sunny and hot day in southwestern Germany with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the World No. 145 from Chile lost the opening set of the final 6-2 and was leading 1-0 in the second set when Zeppieri hurt his left ankle and was forced to retire.
Say cheese, Alejandro Tabilo 😉#ATPChallenger | @Ftch_oficial pic.twitter.com/vF6ph85EbX
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 9, 2023
“I am happy that I won the tournament, but of course I’m sorry for Giulio. I hope he recovers quickly,” Tabilo said right after the match. The 26-year-old South American felt comfortable in Karlsruhe throughout the week.
“Karlsruhe is a really beautiful city, a lot of green and quiet. I liked that very much. And the tournament was perfectly organised, I had a really nice week here,” Tabilo added.
Tabilo captured his third ATP Challenger career title, his second of the season following his triumph in Francavilla, Italy in May, pocketed €9,880 in prize money as well as 75 ATP Ranking points.
Oberleitner/Sandkaulen triumph in doubles
On Saturday, Neil Oberleitner of Austria and German Tim Sandkaulen clinched the doubles title. The unseeded duo defeated Vit Kopriva from the Czech Republic and Michail Pervolarakis of Greece 6-1, 6-1. The encounter lasted 59 minutes.
By winning their first team title at Challenger level, Oberleitner and Sandkaulen split €4,250 in prize money and earned 75 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
Organisers pleased with first edition
After three editions of a WTA Tour 125 tournament, the organisers decided to host an ATP Challenger event this year. This seemed to have paid off. More than 2,000 spectators attended the matches over the past seven days.
“The decision to switch from the WTA Tournament to an ATP Challenger event was exactly the right one,” tournament director Markus Schur stated in a press release. “The cooperation with the ATP officials was very relaxed. The implementation of the requirements was much easier than at the WTA event.”
