SEGOVIA/STARNBERG, July 23, 2026
The 40th edition of the Open Castilla y León Villa de El Espinar is approaching its decisive stages, with the singles draw moving into the quarterfinals.
Wednesday’s schedule featured the bottom-half round-of-16 matches in the singles draw, with four matches taking place throughout the day.
The action began on Pista Central Pedro Munoz with a closely contested encounter between China’s Yi Zhou and France’s Luka Pavlovic. After 100 minutes of play, Pavlovic edged through 6-4, 7-6(6) to secure his place in the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 75 hard-court event.
He will face Turkey’s Mert Alkaya, who produced the most dominant performance of the day. Alkaya needed just 52 minutes to defeat Japan’s Akira Santillan 6-2, 6-2. Santillan required treatment from the physiotherapist during the match and later withdrew from his doubles match, indicating that he was unable to compete at full fitness.
The afternoon session featured two high-quality contests. In an all-French battle, Paul Inchauspe defeated compatriot Florent Bax 7-5, 6-3 in 100 minutes. France is the second most successful nation in the tournament’s history, with 12 singles titles, and Inchauspe kept that tradition alive with a composed display.
The final match of the day saw local wild card Mario Gonzalez take on No. 2 seed Keegan Smith of the United States. Smith, the highest-ranked player in the draw after the withdrawal of Chris Rodesch, used his greater experience and authority to control the match, winning 6-4, 6-2 in just over an hour and ending Gonzalez’s impressive run.
Smith will now meet Paul Inchauspe in the quarterfinals, while Luka Pavlovic and Mert Alkaya will contest the other confirmed quarterfinal from the bottom half of the draw.
Orden de Juego
📅 22 de julio pic.twitter.com/cpR7hM5Fkz— Tenis El Espinar (@Tenis_Espinar) July 22, 2026
