Andria: Nikoloz Basilashvili has had a break-out year on the ATP Tour this year, but his season came to an abrupt end in Andria on Thursday. The Georgian reached a career-high ranking of 86 this October, and is currently 104. But he was massively upset by Czech Jan Satral, ranked at 186, also off the back of a recent career-high of 160 achieved in September. Satral was able to upset the top seed 7-6, 6-3. All the other seeds in action on Thursday managed to win in straight sets. Third seed Ivan Dodig won against Italian qualifier Lorenzo Sonego 7-6, 6-0, fourth seed Dudi Sela beat Ante Pavic 7-6, 7-6, and fifth seed Luca Vanni managed to defeat Swiss Marco Chiundinelli 7-6, 6-1.
The first match of Thursday saw the recently inspired Egor Gerasimov reach another semi-final, as he defeated second seed Illya Marchenko 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. Picks in bold. Jan Satral’s reward for defeating Basilashvili is a meeting with sixth seed Michael Berrer. Dudi Sela faces Luca Vanni, and Roberto Marcora will try and force an upset against Ivan Dodig.
Toyota: Yuichi Sugita is now the highest seed left in the competition, as he defeated second seed Tatsumo Ito 6-3, 6-4. Yoshihito Nishioka was hard-pressed to join him, finally beating Tucker Vorster 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. Konstantin Kravchuk also progressed, winning against Sho Katayama 6-2, 7-6. Alexander Kudryavtsev completed the semi-final contingent by beating Jason Jung in a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win.
Saturday will see the semi-finals in Toyota (overnight Friday GMT). Konstantin Kravchuk will face seventh seed Yoshihito Nishioka in the first semi-final, before the one remaining unseeded player Alexander Kudryatsev tries to upset Yuichi Sugita.
These events represent the final ATP Challenger matches of the 2015 season.
