In the event of the newborn Challenger 175 category, Zeppieri surrenders, with honor, to the very strong American Shelton. Humber beats Daniel in a 4 hours and 13 minutes long match
Nothing doing for Giulio Zeppieri, 21, the last Italian remaining in the singles competition of the Sardegna Open, a premium event in the newly created ATP Challenger 175 category, broadcast live by Supertennis. The Roman tennis player put in serious difficulty one who is considered almost a phenomenon, the number 2 of the draw Ben Shelton, who ended up winning 6-4 4-6 7-5 at the end of a really tough match, for the 20-year-old from Atlanta. For Zeppieri a defeat with some regrets, of course, but the awareness of having played a truly excellent tournament.
MATCH RECORD
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The Sardegna Open also saw a match lasting 4 hours and 13 minutes on Friday and capable of touching the absolute record for the duration of a match at Challenger level (remained 10 minutes away), finished 6-7 7-6 6 -4 in favor of the French Ugo Humber, 24-year-old left-handed from Metz, with the first set, won by his rival, the Japanese Taro Daniel, 13/11 in the tie-break after 82 minutes, launching a battle of tennis, grit, heart and lungs. The second set was even longer, with Daniel wasting three match-points (two at 5-3, another in the tie-break) and in the throes of regrets he found himself forced to start over in the third, with the muscles now devoid of energy. A situation in which Humbert’s greater ease of play weighed, who found the winning break in the tenth game, inventing a great play with his backhand on the umpteenth draw in a duel of 142 points each.
GALAN
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Their challenge of 4 hours and 13 minutes – the longest ever played in a Challenger in Europe – rises to fourth place in the overall standings of the Challenger circuit, surpassing the 2012 duel in Guayaquil (Ecuador) between Paolo Lorenzi and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. The curiosity? Both are in Cagliari, the Italian co me tournament director and Spanish as coach of Giannessi and Monteiro. For Humbert, in the semifinal there will be the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan, who thanks to the three victories obtained on the clay of Monte Urpinu guaranteed his return to the top 100 in the world ranking. After Thursday’s success against tournament number 1 Yoshihito Nishioka, the South American also eliminated the Croatian Borna Gojo, coming from a 3-1 deficit in the deciding set to win 6-3 4-6 6-3. Last semifinalist the Croatian Laslo Djere, who beat the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis 3-6 6-1 6-1.
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