Four out of the five men’s seeds in action on Day 4 of the Canberra $75K ATP Challenger have progressed through to the second round. With temperatures hitting 36 degrees, player’s fitness was put to the test with several matches going the distance.
Top seed Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) defeated fellow countryman Stefano Napolitano 6-4, 6-4, while six seed Diego Schwartman (ARG) beat young Australian Alexei Popyrin (NSW) in straight sets. Second seed Santiago Giraldo (COL) had a comfortable victory over Dudi Sela (ISR), 6-3, 6-3. Ivan Dodig won a tight match over Australia’s Dayne Kelly (Vic). After winning the first in a tiebreak, Dodig was down a break early in the second, but recovered to take the match 7-6, 6-4.
Eighth seed Taro Daniel (JPN) was the only seed to fall on day 4, going down to Frenchman Quentin Halys in an epic three set battle that lasted almost three hours.
Australian’s Andrew Whittington (Vic) and Matthew Ebden (WA) also featured in 3 set battles with mixed results. Whittington prevailed over Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO), to continue his good form after making the semifinals in Happy Valley last week. While Ebden went down to Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver, 6-2, 6-7, 6-1. Max Purcell (NSW) defeated fellow wildcard Daniel Hobart (SA) to record his first main draw win at the Challenger level.
Second round action will be played tomorrow, with the top 7 seeds all in action. The remaining Aussies in the draw will face some tough matches with Purcell up against Giraldo, Whittington facing Hayls, and Maverick Banes (Qld) will pay fourth seed Marcel Granollers (ESP).
Wednesday’s order of play and the draws can be found here. Entry into the Canberra Tennis is free with shade cover over seating on centre court.
Live scoring is available here. Live streaming is available here
The Canberra $75K ATP Challenger will be held at the Canberra Tennis Centre from 9-16 January, 2016. The event is part of the Australian Pro Tour and will provide local and international players a lead-in to the Australian Open 2016.
The tournament was announced in November after the success of the Canberra International and as part of the Tennis ACT calendar of events secured through the redevelopment of the Canberra Tennis Centre.
The redeveloped Canberra Tennis Centre features 28 tennis courts – including synthetic grass, Italian clay and hardcourt surfaces – as well as four ANZ Tennis Hot Shots courts. The venue will also host back-to-back Pro Tour events in March 2016 to be contested on clay.
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