The ATP 250 of Naples of 2022, a ‘small’ tournament in a calendar full of big events, will forever remain in the memory of the millions of fans who follow the racket sport – and surely the group of participants -, although not precisely because of what happened on the track . The Italian City Championship it is being a true organizational chaoswhich has pushed the show into the background.
The Neapolitan tournament started with severe problems from the first day, when the matches of the previous qualifying rounds were transferred to the Pozzuoli Tennis Club (40 minutes from the planned club) due to a track mounting error. These, with a fast surface, had potholes and even footprintsand mounting flaws barely allowed the balls to bounce.
Those responsible for the tournament pointed to “technical issues outside the organization”, in addition to the heavy rains that fell on the city days before the start. This ruling also forced those responsible to compensate the spectators who had purchased tickets for those sessions, Well, they were finally played behind closed doors.
In any case, the controversy with the tracks did not end there, since the start of the final phase -scheduled for Monday the 17th- had to be delayed one day, since the material did not arrive on time from Florence, where a championship was played the last week. In addition, throughout the tournament several players more assembly faults have been pointed outto which is added the uncertainty about the rain (because this is the only outdoor hard court tournament in Europe, in the middle of the indoor tennis season).
The humidity of the sea delays the day
In any case, during the days that have been played the rainfall has not been the main problem, but the humidity of the sea a few meters from the runway. The intensity of it is especially strong when the sun disappears, which is why many games of the afternoon shift have been canceled due to being left behind.to track impracticable due to this reason.
These delays have severely conditioned the progress of the painting, since this Thursday’s session was closed With two round of 16 matches to play. It must finish on Sunday.
Problems with accommodation
Problems on the court and with the weather are just one of the concerns of tennis players, as they have also had problems with accommodation. The most serious case has been the one carried out by the Colombian doubles player Nicholas Barrientoswho was evicted from the assigned hotel during the dispute of a match.
This was reported by number 62 in the doubles ranking on his social networks, confirming that after returning to the hotel after a match, he found his belongings and those of his girlfriend lying in the hotel reception. As he comments, an email explaining that she had to change accommodation (for the second time) arrived in her mailbox while she was playing a match, and an hour later they had already taken her bags out of the room.
This filled the cup! How can this happen in an ATP250, not even in a Challenger had it happened to me, well I think it happened to my partner in a Challenger organized by the same company as this 250. Open thread pic.twitter.com/LuXQura3Kw
– Nicolas Barrientos (@nicobg15) October 18, 2022
Barrientos also did not hesitate to mention transportation problems, as he confirmed, the availability of official cars is “very little”, making it very difficult to travel to matches and training sessions. These problems, as indicated by the Colombian, had only been known in other events organized by the same company, NEN Events.
The Andreas Seppi case
Beyond all the bizarre events that have hindered the development of the tournament, the Naples ATP already began with controversy before the ball began to bounce. The reason, the denial of an invitation (wildcard in tennis parlance) for the Italian tennis legend Andreas Seppi.
The 38-year-old tennis player from Bolzano announced his professional retirement at the end of the season, so wanted to attend the Neapolitan tournament to say goodbye to the Italian fans despite not having enough ranking (now he is 301 in the world, his all-time high was 18). However, the Italian Tennis Federation refused to grant you this invitation, because they responded to his request by pointing out that giving him a stake ‘would have been a waste’ (considering that opportunity would be better for an emerging tennis player).
The Italian was, along with Fognini y Paolo Lorenzi, one of the great tennis players who have served as an inspiration to young people who now enjoy the momentum of Italian tennis. With three ATP titles under his belt, I knew can boast of being one of the few tennis players who has managed to beat Nadal and Federer at least once.
