The Italian derby in the first round of the Milano Premier Padel P1 has rewarded Riccardo Sinicropi and Lorenzo Di Giovanni. An epic comeback, that of the two Azzurri, who in an hour and 56’ beat another Italian, Marco Cassetta, paired with the Spanish Miki Solbes, 2-6 7-5 6-4. After a first set in which Cassetta and Solbes had approached the match better, the second was a battle, with the break of the Genoese Sinicropi and the Abruzzese Di Giovanni on 6-5 that took the match to the decisive set, in which another break in the fifth game paved the way to victory.
A victory that has a special meaning for Di Giovanni: “Before the match I said to myself: “if I win this, I will dedicate it to my wife who is pregnant” and in the end I did it, the dedication is for her”. And his wife, Sky Sport journalist Giorgia Cenni, was obviously in the stands at the Allianz Cloud and was just as emotional as her husband and everyone present. “After the first few games – Di Giovanni continued – I started to adapt and told myself to have fun and enjoy the atmosphere”. And when asked by a journalist whether the baby could be called Riccardo (provided it was a boy) in honour of his partner, Lorenzo joked: “It’s an idea”. “We did well to stay in the match – added Sinicropi –. We knew it would take little to turn it around and it did. Now we hope to have fun and continue playing our best padel”.
In the second round, today not before 6 p.m., Sinicropi and Di Giovanni will face legend Sanyo Gutierrez and José Diestro, the number 10 seed, with Gutierrez being among the players in the running for a place in the Premier Padel Finals, reserved for the top 16 players in the FIP Race. Riccardo and Lorenzo join another Italian, Facundo Dominguez, who had gained access to the second round in the morning paired with Argentinean Nacho Piotto.
TODAY Tuesday there is a lot of Italy on the Allianz Cloud centre court: at 10 a.m. Giorgia Marchetti will open the programme, who will face Bea Caldera and Lorena Rufo, paired with the French Lea Godallier. In the third match it will be the turn of wild cards Chiara Pappacena and Martina Parmigiani, who will oppose Noemi Aguilar and Teresa Navarro; next up, Italian number 1 Carolina Orsi, who with Spanish Nuria
Rodriguez will take on Sandra Bellver and Barbara Las Heras. Also returning to the court will be Caterina Baldi and Giulia Dal Pozzo, who after coming through the qualifiers will take on another pair from the qualifiers, the one formed by Letizia Maria Manquillo and Arantxa Soriano, on court number 2.