The I Tennis Foundation wears the Italian colors: Alessandra, Francesca and Martina are Italian champions

After the successes on the European tour (five Tennis Europe tournaments won, five finals reached and seven semi-finals played) between Austria, Greece and Bosnia Herzegovina, the 12 I Tennis Foundation fellows returned to Italy to compete in the Italian Championships.
We will say it straight away: our players born in 2008 and 2009, engaged between Schio, Prato, Arezzo and Bari, demonstrated even in the most important appointment of the tennis season the progress recorded during the Intesa Sanpaolo Assicura Little Tennis Champions scholarship.
The highest peaks of these performances were offered by three fantastic girls. Let’s start with Alessandra Fiorillo and Francesca Galli both born in 2008 who, at the Tennis Club Schio (Vicenza), became Italian champions in doubles by overcoming Ilary Pistola (who won the singles final against Carla Giambelli) and Fabiola Marino 6-1/3-6/12-10 in a superb final.
The journey in Schio was also very positive for the singles draw, where Francesca Galli was confirmed among the top 8 in Italy for the second year in a row. Alessandra Fiorillo (eighth, after a hard-fought “derby” at the beginning with Giulia Di Concetto), Elisabetta Allegra and Sabrina Baranovschi also did well.
The Italian champion’s party then moved on to Prato, where Martina Cerbo (together with Beatrice Gatti) triumphed in the doubles to win the championship in the Under 14 category. For the left-handed player from Lazio, a member of the Sporting Press Club, it was the best conclusion to a summer spent with her foot on the throttle.
After the double of 2020-2021 and the final of 2022, the 2009 Carlo Paci had this time to settle for the semi-final at the Italian Championships in Arezzo. A match in which the Riminese player was not able to express his full potential, but which confirms him for the fourth consecutive year among the best 2009s in our country. Also at TC Giotto, it is worth noting the fine ride to the eighth round by our Alex Romano.
Mattia Cappellari’s extraordinary performance in the Under-15 tournament in Bari. After three victories and two semi-finals in the five tournaments in Europe, Mattia reached the quarter-finals against the number 1 seed Antonio Marigliano. Here Cappellari showed incredible tennis, leading 6-3/5-3 with match point. Just one mistake and the match turned on the side of the excellent Marigliano, because in tennis you can lose even if you miss a tiny point to win (if it happened to Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final, it can happen to ‘mere mortals’). But the feeling of strength given by Mattia throughout the summer is the best antidote to disappointment: the path taken is the right one.
Now teams and players from the Intesa Sanpaolo Assicura Little Tennis Champions programme will meet again at the end of September at the Tennis Villa Reale in Monza for a special training session with an exceptional super coach: former Davisman Omar Camporese, ATP number 18 in ’92 and capable of defeating such champions as Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Goran Ivanisevic, among others, during his career.