This is why the Challenger 175 scheduled on the Monte Urpinu fields from 1 to 7 May will be a great opportunity for many fans to admire the best players in the ranking
Great tennis has finally returned to the forefront of the peninsula. With the Sanremo tournament just concluded and Barletta's “Open Città della Disfida” in full swing, preparations continue for the first “Super Challenger” to land in Italy.
From 1 to 7 May (qualifications on 29 and 30 April), in fact, the "Sardegna Open", the first European tournament in the Challenger 175 category, will be staged on the red clay of the Tennis Club Cagliari.
A unique opportunity for fans of the sport created by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, as this new category was designed by the ATP precisely to offer great entertainment, allowing very high ranking players to take part in tournaments which, until last year, they were forbidden.
If you're wondering how this is possible, here's the answer: Challenger tournaments usually have particular technical limitations, such as the one in the Challenger 125 events, which define the participation of up to a maximum number of two top 50 players, if not "invited ” thanks to a wild card.
The Super Challenger revolution was born from the need to create a new opportunity for the players, in the second week of some Masters 1000 (Indian Wells, Madrid, Rome). To make this possible, the ATP has removed the restriction on the top 50, keeping only the one relating to the absolute ban on participation in the top 10. If a player is included in the top ten when the entry list closes - which for a challenger usually it's three weeks before the tournament, you're not like the major circuit tournaments - you won't be able to participate in the event in any way. The difference, as it's easy to understand, is enormous and, again on a theoretical level, in Cagliari you could have a scoreboard with all the members by right of classification included in the top 30.
In this mechanism, therefore, enormous possibilities are hidden. Just look at the numbers: 64 out of 96 players in the men's draw will leave the Madrid Masters 1000 within the first week. It is inevitable that among them there are some champions with a desire for immediate revenge.
If, for example - the hypothetical is a must - a big name on the circuit is not at his best in Madrid and is surprised by a fit opponent, capable of ousting him from the tournament, the probability that he wants to put other matches in the legs before getting to fight for the title at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia is high and the doors of the Super Challenger in Cagliari would open for him. Obviously the uncertainties - which in this case, however, are also opportunities - are linked precisely to the Masters 1000 in the Spanish capital: until the losers of the first rounds are known, it will be impossible to have the definitive list of who will land on the clay courts of Mount Urpinu.
This is why placing Cagliari on the calendar a week before Rome is strategic.
And also because, as we could already see last March for the first Super Challenger staged in Phoenix - where the number one seeding was not by chance the blue Matteo Berrettini - the technical level of a "175" is so similar to that of an Atp 250. As we said, this category of tournaments was designed with the aim of letting the big players play, avoiding too long breaks in view of the major events of the Tour. Almost a sort of fascinating sprint race - to use a motoring comparison - which anticipates the great Roman event.
