The Bergamo Challenger is one of the leading events of the European Indoor circuit on the Challenger Tour.
World number 90 Go Soeda is the top seed this week but much will depend on how he recovers from the jetlag and the exertion of competing for Japan in the Davis Cup at the weekend. Soeda scored a superb win over Ivan Dodig from two sets to love down on day one but it's a long way from Japan to Italy and he'll have little time to prepare.
Watch out for third seed Malek Jaziri who's been very impressive so far this season and reached the Quimper Challenger final last week. However Jaziri has a tough opener against Amir Delic and he could then face big serving German Ben Becker in round two. Becker is in the main draw as a wildcard this week and is being bigged up in the local press as a result of his win against Andre Agassi at the US Open six years ago.
Former Australian Open finalist Arnaud Clement continues to try his luck in the challengers. It's been a poor season so far for Clement who lost in Australian Open qualifying and crashed out early in Quimper.
Estonia's Jurgen Zopp is another who's quietly enjoying a very respectable start to 2012, qualifying for the Australian Open and winning the recent Kazan Challenger title. The same goes for German veteran Bjorn Phau (seventh seed this week) who went all the way in the strong Heilbronn tournament last month.
