The first four indoor Challengers organized in the city have gone into the archive. For Cosimo Napolitano, Tennis Lab Biella and the whole territory it was an unprecedented success, favored in the first two weeks, by the presence of the former world number 1 Andy Murray. Since his arrival at the Relais Santo Stefano in Sandigliano, the press from all over the world has been unleashed on the return to the field of the thirty-three-year-old Scottish, who has tried to find those shots that have allowed him in a not too distant past, to win three tests of the Slam and two Olympic gold medals (plus 14 Masters 1000). And it doesn’t matter if he failed to raise the trophy, ending up defeated at the epilogue by the Ukrainian Iliya Marchenko. His had already done so, gathering in front of a screen (the pandemic prevented the access of fans to the PalaPajetta) thousands of fans, who became 9,200 in the final. Significantly higher numbers than usual: so on Sunday on the occasion of the last act of the Challenger Biella 4 between the two Germans Daniel Masur and Matthias Bachinger the peak came in the tie break of the second set, followed by 1,500 users.
Of the eleven blues at the start of the first Challenger the best was Federico Gaio, stopped in the semifinals by the winner. In the second, the most important one (prize money of 132,280 euros against the 44,820 of the other three), a Korean entered the roll of honor for the first time: Soonwoo Kwon left only one set on the street, surpassing the final. emerging nineteen year old Lorenzo Musetti (last week arrived one step away from the epilogue of the ATP500 in Acapulco, stopped only by Tsitsipas). In the third round the Italians at the start were only six, but the greatest satisfaction for our colors arrived thanks to the success achieved by Andreas Seppi, who at the age of 37 once again highlighted his class.
The home talent Stefano Napolitano showed improvements, but was unable to go beyond the first round, blocked in order by Masur (whose qualities emerged along the way); Musetti, Brayden Schnur and last week Zdenek Kolar, on the only occasion he managed to win a set. In Biella we saw past champions, such as Jack Sock (number 8 in 2017), Lucas Pouille (10 three years ago), Bernard Tomic and young hopefuls, such as the Tuscan Musetti or the twenty-year-old Czech Jonas Forejtek.
In total, 232 games were played: 172 in the singles and 60 valid for the doubles draw. During these four weeks, 1,136 boxes of balls were used and more than 800 rackets strung.