Luca Nardi has qualified for the quarter-finals of the Naples Challenger (category 125 tournament with a prize pool of 148,625 euros). The Italian tennis player has defeated the Frenchman Matteo Martineau in two sets, prevailing with a score of 7-6(4), 6-1 and thus continuing their adventure on the red clay of the Campania capital. The 20 year old he will return to the field in the late afternoon to face Matteo Gigantewho got the better of Samuel Vincent Ruggeri with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The Pesaro native, who had beaten world number 1 Novak Djokovic at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, did well not to be influenced by the heat that emerged after three days characterized by rain and clouds, managing to the Frenchman recover after losing serve at the start of the first set and canceling a break point in the tenth game, also recovering from 0-2 in the tie-break.
Giorgio Galimberti’s student, who scored six consecutive points in the decisive portion of the first set, then dominated the second set, also canceling a couple of break points in the third game and scoring ten points in a row. Luca Nardi thus continues his climb up the ATP ranking: at the moment he is virtually 94th with 639 points.
Any qualification for the semi-finals would allow him to climb to 658 and provisionally move to 88th place in the rankings. Any triumph in Naples would ensure that he reaches 748 points and would be virtually number 76 in the ATP ranking.
Nardi’s scoreboard: Gigante in the quarterfinals, the winner of the match between Passaro and the French Blanchet in the semi-final, one between the Argentine Coria and the Transalpines Moutet, Gea, Herbert in the final act.
