Morgan having his first attempt at challenger qualifying on clay in Italy. In rd1 he faces Alan Wright's conqueror from last weekend, 25 year old Adriano Biasella. Biasella is ranked 732 and hasn't won a match in a main draw since mid-April. He struggled past Alan last week before losing in straight sets in qualifying rd2. It's a match which Morgan should win, and if so he'll face the Slovakian 3rd seed Pavel Cervenak.
Alan has tough match against 23 year old Italian Alberto Giraudo who's ranked 528. At the start of August Giraudo reached the semis of a futures in Italy and earlier this year he made the quarters of the Tuni challenger so Alan will have his work to cut out to make the match competitive.
I'm very surprised at Morgan's loss, his form seems to have dipped in the last couple of months, it was a shame that he got injured right after his great run in May when he won his 1st title. However, even if he'd won in rd1 I don't think he would have beaten Cervenak in rd2, the Slovak has been named as the ITF player of the month for July.
Despite Alan's defeat, that was a really great performance against a player ranked over 700 places higher. There must have only been a few points in it. Giraudo won through to the final qualies round.
