SAN MARINO, August 16, 2021
After a seven-year hiatus, the ATP Challenger Tour was back in the Republic of San Marino. The world’s fifth-smallest country welcomed a €66,640 clay-court tournament last week. San Marino previously hosted an ATP Challenger event for 14 years, from 2001-14, with future Top 20 stars Jose Acasuso, Andreas Seppi and Marco Cecchinato among its champions.
Danish young gun Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune is the winner of the 2021 Internazionali Di Tennis San Marino Open. The 18-year-old fought past Brazilian qualifier Orlando Luz 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 under the lights at the at the Centro Tennis Cassa di Risparmio on Sunday evening.
Rune capitalized on four of his seven break-point chances to prevail after one hour and 49 minutes.
Holger Rune is unstoppable 🔥
The Dane 🇩🇰 battles past Orlando Luz 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in San Marino to pick up his second Challenger crown! #ATPChallenger | @F_S_T pic.twitter.com/cPH1EhJjCQ
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) August 15, 2021
The unseeded teenager battled his way to the title match with wins over Julien Cagnina of Belgium, No. 3 seeded Italian Salvatore Caruso, Joao Menzes from Brazil and top favourite Marco Cecchinato of Italy. By lifting his second ATP Challenger trophy, following his triumph in Biella, Italy, Rune pocketed €9,200 in prize money as well as 90 ATP Ranking points.
Kolar/Matinez win first team title
On Saturday, Zdenek Kolar from the Czech Republic and Luis David Martinez of Venezuela took the doubles title. The No. 4 seeds rallied from a set down to overcome Rafael Matos and Joao Menezes of Brazil 1-6, 6-3, 10-3. The final lasted one hour and 24 minutes.
Kolar and Martinez clinched their first team title and split €3,950 in prize money and pocketed 90 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
🙌 First team title 🙌
🇨🇿 Zdenek Kolar & 🇻🇪 Luis David Martinez are the doubles champions in San Marino, defeating Matos & Menezes 1-6, 6-3, 10-3#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/43dkK113yr
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) August 14, 2021
