Once again Carrara against Messina. The two “queens” of Italian men’s table tennis will compete for the 2024 tricolor. The first leg of the championship final will be played today in the gym of Villa Dante starting at 5pm, the return match, in Carrara, is scheduled for Saturday 27th. All in three days, in short. In the semi-final which took place yesterday on the banks of the Strait, Top Spin beat Bagnolese by 3 to 2, while Apuania Carrara won its home match against Norbello 3 to 0. As expected, the match between Messina and Bagnolese, second and third strongest in the A1 championship, was more intense and balanced.
And it was clear from the first match that the match wasn’t easy for the Sicilians, won by Matteo Mutti over Francisco Sanchi in a “good” fashion (in the decisive set Mutti made a great comeback at 8-5, scoring six consecutive points). But Bagnolese reversed the score in the following two matches, as first Andrei Istrate and then the former Jordy Piccolin won two very tight matches against Niagol Stoyanov and Antonino Amato respectively. Matteo Mutti, who won his second match of the day, beating Istrate 3 to 0, took care of rebalancing the series. To complete the job (a draw would have been enough for the Giallorossi due to their best placing at the end of the regular season) Antonino Amato’s four-set victory over Sanchi.
