Some people name the $150k challenger in the pre-Wimbledon week to be the best challenger tournament in the world. At least, many claycourt-players who do think to do well in Wimbledon go to the Northern Germany city tournament, which does not look worse like minor ATP ones. On Sunday, June, 12th, the venue was already quite full though it was just day 2 of the qualifying draw.
In the first match I watched of third round qualies, young German Herm-Zahlava faced the routined Serrano from Spain and got completely smashed down in first set. He lost his first service game in the second set, but managed to get the re-break. Though the German was now even the better player, he just acted too nervous and got broken again. No chance to recover this time - Serrano made it into the main draw.