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September was a special month for the UTR Pro Tennis Tour (PTT) as Italy hosted its first-ever PTT event. The feat makes Italy the 14th European country to host the PTT. Other host countries in September included Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and France.
Luca Fantini Wins in Italy
The first Italian PTT event was a men’s $25K held in Florence and hometown underdog Luca Fantini won the title. It marked the 22-year-old’s first pro title. Fantini has been playing professional tennis since early 2021, competing mostly on the ITF Tour.
Fantini dedicated his win to his friend Alessio Carmagnini, who was also honored by the tournament host site, the Professione Tennis Calenzano. Carmagnini passed away unexpectedly at the tennis club in 2019 at just 21 years old. A women’s $25K PTT is being held at Professione Tennis this week.
Italy is one of eight new host PTT countries in 2022 along with Greece, Japan, Brazil, Slovakia, Argentina, India, and the United Kingdom.
PTT Events Continue at College Campuses
During the week of Sept. 4-11, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. held a men’s and women’s PTT event, with Eduardo Nava and Mia Horvit walking away as the champions.
Nava played college tennis at Wake Forest, finishing his graduate student eligibility earlier this year. He’s part of an established pro tennis family as he’s the older brother of 20-year-old pro Emilio Nava and cousin of Ernesto Escobedo, who reached No. 67 in the ATP rankings in 2017.
Horvit, who has previously won three PTT titles, won all six of her matches in straight sets. The 25-year-old also played college tennis, for the University of South Carolina.
“Just going through [a PTT] it’s tough mentally, physically, and emotionally, but once you go through them a lot, you build more momentum,” Horvit told Universal Tennis. “Once you get to the finals it’s like, wow, look where I’ve started and look where I am right now and how much I’ve achieved and what I can pursue down the road.”
During the week of Sept. 11-18, Sofia Smagina won the women’s PTT $25K held at the University of Kansas. Smagina spent the first three years of her college career playing for Kansas and is now a senior at Washburn University in nearby Topeka. After winning her first PTT, she captured the Division II Central Regional Championship.
Darwin PTT Offers ITF Wild Card
Colin Sinclair won the PTT $25 Darwin 96th NT Open Men during the first week of September. The 27-year-old from the Northern Mariana Islands is ranked No. 621 on the ATP Tour. Darwin marked Sinclair’s first PTT appearance in 2022 after competing in three events last year.
Like all PTT events, the Darwin tournament guaranteed all players multiple matches and prize money. It also awarded the winner a wild card into the qualifying draw of an ITF M25 (held at the Darwin International Tennis Centre) during the week of Sept 19.
About the UTR Pro Tennis Tour
The PTT is open to players with a UTR Ranking of 200-2000, and wild cards can be awarded to those players with a UTR Ranking of 1-199 or above 2000. Every PTT event creates matchplay opportunities for up-and-coming, collegiate, and pro players thanks to a unique round-robin format. At every event, a group round-robin stage is followed by a World Cup-style playoff, guaranteeing multiple matches and counting all results towards the UTR Rating, the most accurate rating system in tennis. Every PTT event offers 4-5 matches and a minimum of $20,000 in prize money with an earnings guarantee for every participant.
For more information about UTR PTT and to see all of the results, click here.
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