Fognini leads Italian charge at Turin Challenger

Italy is at the centre of the tennis world this week, hosting both the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome and an ATP Challenger 175 event in Turin.

While Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti are proudly waving the Italian flag in Rome, former World No. 9 Fabio Fognini made a winning start to his Turin campaign on Wednesday.

Fognini, who arrived at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo following his final outing at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome, treated the home crowd to a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Oleg Prihodko. The 37-year-old will be back in action Thursday against seventh seed Buyunchaokete.

Fognini was not the only Italian who won his opening-round match. Luca Nardi and Francesco Passaro won three-set battles at the clay-court event, which Passaro won last year. Nardi overcame Mariano Navone 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(2) while Passaro escaped Federico Agustin Gomez 7-6(6), 6-7(6), 6-3 to set a second-round meeting against Luciano Darderi.

Frenchmen Make Fast Start In Bordeaux
The BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux was also dominated by home hopes on Wednesday. Fifth seed Quentin Halys led the French charge by defeating Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-4, 6-3. Seventh seed Hugo Gaston raced past Sumit Nagal while fellow lefty Terence Atmane beat Daniel Elahi Galan 7-5, 7-5. Atmane, a wild card in Bordeaux, won two hard-court Challenger titles in Asia this past month.

French qualifier Calvin Hemery upset eighth seed Aleksandar Kovacevic, who won the Challenger 175 in Cap Cana in March, with a hard-fought 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win.

“Point of the week!” 👏 #ATPChallenger | @BNPPprimrose pic.twitter.com/C13dRE0EjU

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 14, 2025