40th International Under 18 Tournament “Città di Prato”: Daniele Rapagnetta (2) in the quarterfinals together with Samuele Seghetti and Lorenzo Beraldo. In the women’s Ilary Pistola faces the winner of Salsomaggiore Lilli Tagger

The flags of all the continents are flying at the 40th International Under 18 Tournament “Città di Prato” and even on the pitch the challenges are fun and hard-fought. Quarter-finals for the wool event which will have its finals on Saturday 11 May from 2pm with the women’s challenge followed by the men’s match.
The winner of Salsomaggiore comes out immediately against the Argentine Carles Cordoba [8] in a really hard-fought match and closed by the South American 16 63 64 who then eliminated the Slovenian qualifier Ziga Sesko in the double round and will now face the number two and finalist at the Città di Firenze Daniele Rapagnetta who defeated the South African Connor 62 76 for a place in the semi-final Doig. The favorite of the tournament, the Chinese Tianhui Zhang, also reaches the quarterfinals, prevailing 62 62 over Mondazzi and will now face the Spaniard Luis Garcia Paez. Space is made at the top of the scoreboard for Lorenzo Beraldo who beats the Frenchman Kouame 36 64 64 and will now have the Russian Kharlamov while Samuele Seghetti, who benefits from Comino’s withdrawal, will find the Romanian Teodor Stirbu in the quarterfinals.

In the women’s draw, Ilary Pistola wins the Italian derby with the home favorite Vittoria Vignolini who in the first match managed to get through but then had to succumb against the Marche girl from Coop Pesaro Tennis who will now have a really complicated match against the Austrian Lilli Tagger, winner of the Salsomaggiore tournament, who plays really fun tennis with heavy shots also thanks to her physicality. The player is coached by Francesca Schiavone who is following her in Prato.

The second favorite, the Swedish Lea Nilsson, moves forward and will now face the Egyptian Salah who defeated the Tuscan Sveva Pieroni in a very balanced match with the player coached by Matteo Trevisan and Tommaso Brunetti who found herself ahead in the second set 4-0 . In the upper part, the number one, the Kazakh Arystanbekova, comes out of the hands of the Ukrainian Drobysheva and now challenges the American Tyengar to reach the semi-final. The last quarter sees the Romanian Burcescu facing each other and the winner between the Swede Svahn and the Italian Galli.

Double:
First round also for the doubles tournament with the favorite couple in the men’s competition being the Chinese Korean duo Yeonsu Jeong and Tianhui Zhang while the number twos are Pierluigi Basile and Daniele Rapagnetta. In the women’s category, the Kazakh American couple composed of Asylzhan Arystanbekova and Olivia Center precedes the American duo Claire An and Christasha McNeil

Eighth results
male
CHN Tianhui Zhang [1] 66 b ITA Alessandro Mondazzi (WC) 62 62
ESP Luis Garcia Paez b NCA Joaquin Guilleme [5] 64 64
Roman Kharlamov b ROU Stefan Horia Haita [3] 57 64 64
ITA Lorenzo Beraldo [7] b FRA Moise Kouame 36 64 64
ROU Calin Teodor Stirbu b SWE Ludvig Hede [6] 76 36 76
ITA Samuele Seghetti b ITA Lorenzo Comino 57 11 ret.
ESP Carles Cordoba [8] b SLO Ziga Sesko (Q) 63 63
ITA Daniele Rapagnetta [2] b RSA Connor Doig 62 76

female
UKR Mariia Drobysheva b KAZ Asylzhan Arystanbekova [1] 75 61
USA Maya Iyengar [8] b DEN Sara Borkop 63 63
ROU Maia Ilinca Burcescu b BEL Lauren Seye 64 60
SWE Isabella Svahn – ITA Francesca Galli (WC)
AUT Lilli Tagger b LAT Marina Markina 63 61
ITA Ilary Pistola (WC) b ITAVittoria Vignolini (WC) 61 61
EGY Jana Hossam Salah [5] b ITA Sveva Pieroni (Q) 36 76 62
SWE Lea Nilsson [2] b BEL Indira Lepage 63 62