FÜRTH, June 2, 2016
The ATP Challenger Tour has returned to Fürth with the 38th edition of the €42,500 Franken Challenge, one of the longest established stops of the series.
Two of the four top-seeds were in second round action on Wednesday with the tournament’s number one Malek Jaziri falling to Gerald Melzer. The world number 72 already captured two titles on the ATP Challenger Tour this season in Guadalajara and Le Gosier, being Tunisia’s top-ranked player for the last eight years.
“My best results in Challengers this year have been on hard courts, but I’ve had good results on clay as well,” Jaziri stated on ATP World Tour.com and added: “Fürth is a good tournament for me because they treat the players very well here.”
The 32-year-old opened his title bid with a first round win in straight sets over Daniel Gimeno-Traver on Tuesday, but was forced to retire on Thursday against the Austrian after 62 minutes with a neck injury, trailing 2-6, 1-4. Melzer will take on Máximo Gonzalez in the quarterfinals, who defeated Luca Vanni 6-2, 6-4. The world number 127 from Argentina capitalized on two of his three break point chances to prevail in one hour and 18 minutes.
Fourth seed Jan-Lennard Struff, who lost in the opening round of the French Open to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, battled past Aleksandr Nedovyesov, winning 6-7, 7-5, 6-3. The world number 101 from Germany sent down six aces, winning 75% of his first service points to advance in two hours and 21 minutes.
Struff will take on the tournament’s number eight Jozef Kovalik, who downed Andreas Arnaboldi 6-3 ,6-4. The 23-year-old from Slovakia didn’t face a break point, converting two of his own four opportunities to finish the encounter after one hour and 12 minutes. Struff and Kovalik will face each other for the second time. The German won the only previous meeting in the 2015 qualifying of the ATP 250 event in Kitzbühel in straight sets.
The quarterfinals of the singles competition start on Friday afternoon. Radu Albot, who will face Spanish veteran and third favourite Albert Montanés, as well as Brazilian youngster Thiago Monteiro taking on Tobias Kamke, will join the other four players in the stage of the final eight.
