Summer is coming and it’s time for the ASPRIA Tennis Cup – BCS Trophy . The calendar of the world circuit is made up of some pillars, including the Challenger organized at the ASPRIA Harbor Club, one of the longest running in Italy. The eighteenth edition will be celebrated from 23 to 29 June, presented in a crowded press conference at the Diamond Room of the iconic Milanese club. Doing the honors was general manager Roberta Minardi , who confirmed the management of the technical staff to the now historic director Massimo Lacarbonara , before leaving room for the representatives of the institutions. For the Lombardy Region there was the councilor Massimo Bestetti, for the CONI the regional president Marco Riva and for the FITP the vice-president of the regional committee Ezio Terreni. Everyone underlined the goodness of the current moment of tennis in Italy, both on a technical and organizational level, remembering that Lombardy is the beating heart of the movement and events like this do valuable work both for the territory and for the community. Once again the title sponsor will be BCS (represented by its president, the passionate Giuseppe Fumagalli), always attentive to progress . Fumagalli underlined how artificial intelligence is also used effectively in the world of sport: for this reason, BCS will use it during the tournament to produce a series of data which will then be made available to the various teams. Among the new sponsors will be Allianz Partners, represented by Marco Gioieni, who has chosen to include the tournament in a series of collaborations that will include the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games. Organizing the event, in collaboration with ASPRIA Harbor Club, will be Carlo Alagna’s Makers company , who focused on the various organizational details and underlined the presence of other extremely prestigious sponsors such as Fonti di Gaverina, Green SRL, Zerogen, Pasta Rummo, Metro 5 and Norqain. Once again, the ASPRIA Tennis Cup confirms that it is attentive to sustainability, with Zerogen which will recycle tennis balls for the creation of technical jerseys, Green which deals with solar energy and Norqain which produces watches with apple peel straps, therefore animal cruelty free.
FOUR FORMER JUNIOR NUMBERS 1
On a technical level it will be an edition full of interest, with an exciting mix between Giovani all’Arembaggio and Vecchi Leoni , a typical scenario for category tournaments. The ASPRIA Tennis Cup will see at the starting line four players who in rather recent times were number 1 in the Under 18 world rankings . The most anticipated is also the youngest, Martin Landaluce (born in 2006) who won the US Open junior in 2022 before leaving his youth career a year early. Today he is already close to the ATP top-300 and – barring a last-minute withdrawal – he will play in the qualifiers. However, admitted to the main draw (by virtue of the ATP regulations which offer two slots to veterans from the youth circuit) are two guys who last year were at the top of the ITF ranking and are also very good friends with each other: the Mexican Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez and the Russian Yaroslav Demin. Together they won the junior round of Roland Garros (beating the Italians Sciahbasi-Vulpitta in the final), and the Russian reached the final at Wimbledon. As for Pacheco Mendez, he is already very famous in his country, considered the hope capable of reviving a nation endowed with enthusiasm and tradition, but without high-level athletes for too long. Last year, in Milan, he won the iconic Bonfiglio Trophy. The “oldest” of the four is Chun-Hsin Tseng , a Taiwanese born in 2001 who achieved the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double a few years ago. His approach among the professionals was very good, projecting him among the top 100 until he qualified for the latest Milanese edition of the Next Gen Finals. Last year he had a crisis of results which made him drop out of the top-300, but this year he recovered and found a good ranking again thanks to the recent victory in Vicenza. The many young people are accompanied by elements of experience and quality, among which the number 1 of the draw Albert Ramos Vinolas , an old acquaintance of the ASPRIA Harbor Club, stands out. The Spaniard is the only player to have won two editions (2011 and 2014) , and after the last success in Milan he began the best moment of his career, culminating with the final at the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and a sensational victory over Roger Federer on the hard court in Shanghai. Today he is number 108 ATP and has chosen the Challengers on clay to regain a place among the top-100. To enrich the seeding there will be the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (n.60 ATP last year), the Kazakh Dmitry Popko, the French Jules Marie (known to the mainstream public for his curious activity as a YouTuber tennis player , which has made him a sort of of influencers on the Challenger circuit) and the Italian Enrico Dalla Valle, who has just achieved the best ATP ranking at number 247.
BLUE HOPES
Speaking of Italians, in addition to Dalla Valle there is only one other person admitted by right, Samuel Vincent Ruggeri from Bergamo . Born in 2002 and number 278 ATP. After closing 2023 by winning two ITF titles, this year he has continuously launched himself into the Challenger circuit, in which he reached the quarter-finals in Tenerife and Oeiras. Equipped with a great physique and very powerful tennis, he now seems ready to take the next step. However, the blue patrol will be enriched with wild cards. The invitations for the main draw will be communicated in the run-up to the tournament and will go to Italian players, as they all belong to the FITP Technical Sector. History teaches that there is always an eye for young people, which will enhance the spirit of a tournament that has historically launched many phenomena of tomorrow. Without bothering Jannik Sinner (who in 2018 played his first Challenger match in Milan, in the qualifiers), just think of the last edition: three of the four semi-finalists quickly entered the ATP top-50 (Luciano Darderi, Flavio Cobolli and Facundo Diaz Acosta) . FITP has five invitations available: three in the main draw plus two in the qualifiers. The invitations reserved for the organizers were awarded to the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, former ATP top-20 (and winner of five tournaments, including three ATP 500), who this year is courageously relaunching himself after having even dropped out of the top 1000, and to another boy on the rise, the Brazilian born in 2004 Joao Eduardo Schiessl, number 477 ATP. But the beauty of tournaments of this type lies above all in the average, very high quality, and in the ability to provide ideas and characters even – and above all – among less popular players on the eve. Seventeen editions of the ASPRIA Tennis Cup – BCS Trophy have taught us this.
LIVE TV AND TICKET OFFICE
Among the most interesting news of the 2024 edition is the television coverage of SuperTennis TV. The Channel owned by FITP (receivable at digital terrestrial no. 64) produces and broadcasts all Challenger tournaments on Italian soil and will guarantee the LIVE broadcast of all matches on the Central Court, guaranteeing the tournament unprecedented visibility. For the public on site, free entry is guaranteed up to and including Wednesday 26 June, while for the last three days (the event will end on Saturday 29) tickets can be purchased – through various formulas – on the Ticket One circuit.
GUERRIGLIA TENNIS AT THE SNAI SAN SIRO RACECOURSE
The ASPRIA Tennis Cup – BCS Trophy has always been known for its non-tennis initiatives. Among these, an activity stands out that involves the finalists of the singles draw, who are taken (a few hours before the match) to an iconic place in the city of Milan where tennis, history, culture and entertainment can be contaminated. This year things will be done in a big way, in a very personal re-edition of the legendary Nike advert from 1995 starring Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, “Guerrilla Tennis”, in which the two Americans started playing on the streets of New York, interrupting the flow of traffic. The Milanese event (which will take place under the patronage of Municipality 7 and the collaboration of Snaitech, owner of the SNAI San Siro Hippodrome) will be called “Guerriglia ATP Challenger” and will take place inside the SNAI San Siro Hippodrome, which between the other is not far from the ASPRIA Harbor Club. The two tennis players will improvise a street tennis session at the area of Leonardo’s Horse, one of the largest equestrian statues in the world with a fascinating history behind it. Commissioned to Leonardo Da Vinci in 1482, the majestic work was never completed by the latter. Centuries later, the Leonardo da Vinci’s Horse Foundation entrusted its creation to the American sculptor Nina Akamu and then donated it to the city of Milan: the sculpture, 7 meters high and weighing 10 tons, found its home in the iconic spaces of the SNAI Hippodrome San Siro. Guerriglia ATP Challenger will be an opportunity to discover an extraordinary place where sport, music, history, architecture, art and design meet within a botanical park of immense value. For one day, Saturday 29 June, it will also be the scene of an unprecedented tennis event destined to remain in the memory.
