Open Castile and Leon-Villa de El Espinar ATP Challenger and ITF International Women’s Open
The XXXVIII edition of the ATP Challenger and VIII ITF International Women’s Open tournaments, held at the Pedro Muñoz sports complex, got underway with a day of good tennis and traditional atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was not a particularly good day for Spanish tennis.
The tournament, which has brought together players from 32 countries, has been rescheduled due to the dispute over the Olympic Games and has seen the ATP relegated to the Challenger 50 category, while the ITF has elevated the women’s category to W35. The opening ceremony, which featured the Segovian Gymnastics team, promoted to First RFEF, embodied the tournament’s slogan "Tennis as always", which aims to promote the sport from the grassroots.
Day One Results
The first day of competition saw several notable results, including the victory of Nico Alvarez Varona over Alex Sanchez 6-1 and 6-1, and Mario Gonzalez’s win over Argentine Lorenzo Rodriguez 6-4 and 6-3 in the women’s qualifying round, which saw five of the eight representatives emerge victorious.
Other Results
In the men’s singles, Antoine Escoffier, runner-up in Segovia two seasons ago, made a strong start to his campaign, defeating an opponent in straight sets. Meanwhile, Valeriya Strakhova, the first favourite, got off to a winning start.
Other notable results included the defeat of promising Spanish player Dani Merida at the hands of French opponent Weber 6-4 and 6-4, as well as the NCAA champion, Iñaki Mountains, who fell to Russian opponent Kachmazov 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.