ORTISEI/STARNBERG, October 24, 2023
On the second day at the Sparkasse Challenger Val Gardena Südtirol, Italians Federico Gaio and Francesco Forti advanced to the round of 16, where they will face each other on Thursday.
The 31-year-old Gaio, who competes successfully for TC Rungg in the Italian Tennis Serie A1, lived up to his favorite status against Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist. Gaio won in the late Tuesday afternoon 6-4, 6-4. After saving four break points in his first service game of the match, he held his service confidently and earned beautiful points at the net against the powerful-serving Austrian. Gaio managed to secure breaks in the tenth game of both sets. Neuchrist ended the match with a double fault.
Gaio commented after the match: “I’m happy with how I played today. It wasn’t easy because Neuchrist served well, and the conditions here are very fast. But I always enjoy coming to St. Ulrich, and I won’t deny that I would like to win the tournament here. But I have to take it one match at a time.”
In the round of 16 on Thursday, he will face Forti for the fourth time this year. “We played against each other just a few weeks ago in Serie A1,” said Forti after his 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over Slovakian Norbert Gombos.
“It was an important win for me today against a strong opponent. I didn’t face a single break point and won the tiebreak, even though I was trailing 2-4. In the second set, I had more break opportunities.”
In other action, top seed Abdullah Shelbayh of Jordan booked his spot in the second round of the ATP Challenger Tour 50 tournament. The 19-year-old cruised past Menelaos Efstathiou from Cyprus 6-1, 6-2. Next up for Shelbayh will be the winner of the encounter between Yarolsav Demin of Russia and Italian alternate Enrico Dalla Valle.
A flawless performance by Abdullah Shelbayh 👏
The 19-year-old cruises past Efstathiou 6-1, 6-2 to reach the next round in Ortisei#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/90IFKYULJV
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 24, 2023
