At Wimbledon, traditionally, the honor of inaugurating the program on the Center Court goes to those who have already lifted the trophy. So also at the Veneto Open promoted by the Veneto Region, the 2022 winner, the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, will open the dance for the 2024 edition. Fresh from another circuit title just announced last week in Surbiton (Great Britain), the Belgian redhead aims to rebuild a ranking decimated by a problematic year and conditioned by a bad back injury. Her quest for an encore in Polesine opens against the Swiss Celine Naef, 19 years old on June 25th and just outside the top 150 in the world. Experience, best ranking (n.37 for the Belgian, 121 for the Swiss) and WTA titles won in her career (5 to 0) seem to tip the scales towards the left-handed player from Vilvoorde.
Yet there is a precedent, in the 2nd round of the Crossy-Beaubourg tournament, in France, and it makes the outcome of the challenge much less obvious: it was the young Naef who prevailed on that occasion, with a score rather dry of 6-2 6-1. It is true that the surface was different (synthetic and not grass) and that they were the first return matches after the stop, but the fact remains that now the test to be passed is not at all obvious for one of the most eagerly awaited matches of the day before. The Monday program of this 2024 edition is made up of 5 main draw matches in total, one of which will feature – again on the Central Court – the 29-year-old Italian Camilla Rosatello, from Saluzzo (Cuneo), who will face the eldest of the sisters Andreeva. Mirra made way for Jasmine Paolini in the semi-finals of the last Roland Garros, she – Erika – aims to consolidate her position among the Top 100 after the best ranking of n.94 obtained last March.
Meanwhile, the qualifiers have taken place, and so the grid of 32 participants in the Veneto Open promoted by the Veneto Region is complete. The Swiss Susan Bandecchi joined the party on the green, the only one on the calendar in Italy, the first to get the pass in chronological order this Sunday in Gaiba. She did so by ‘avenging’ the defeat suffered in the only precedent she had with today’s opponent: the Indian Ankita Raina had beaten her in Florence (on red clay) but, despite the 7 aces scored in the match, this time he had to raise the white flag (6-4 6-0 score). Nothing to be done for Anastasia Abbagnato, an Italian player at the Galimberti Tennis Academy in Cattolica, forced to give up in front of the American Elvina Kalieva, a twenty-year-old from Brooklyn who opposed her with more or less the same style of tennis but who had fewer missed passes until the final 6-0 6-4.
However, the other Italian wild card, Jennifer Ruggeri from the Marche, was not even able to take the field, forced to withdraw only a few hours before the match. Thus her designated opponent, the American Varvara Lepchenko, the most renowned among those competing in the qualifiers with her best ranking of no. 19 in the world (October 2012), did not even have to take her rackets out of her bag to get to the main draw. However, she will have to do it already on Monday, when the twenty-year-old Belarusian Aliona Falei awaits her in the 1st round. Match of the day, at least for pathos and uncertainty, the one that promoted the first favorite of the cadet draw, the other American Alycia Parks. With her game based on serve and power, she had started on the right foot against the Czech Anna Siskova, but then had to cancel a match point and resort to the tie-break of the third set (later dominated) to secure a place among the big ones.
There is still a hope of returning through the secondary door, because in the late afternoon the news arrived of the withdrawal of the Tuscan Lucrezia Stefanini, a Florentine born in 1998 close to the top 150 in the world. She will give way, in the match against the 19-year-old Czech Dominika Salkova, to one of the three defeats of the qualifiers, drawn by lot before the start of the matches on Monday. When the big names are ready to put on a show. Appointment at 1.30pm, then it will be an uninterrupted show until Sunday.
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THE VENETO OPEN LIVE – As well as directly at the club entrance on match days, the coupons to attend the matches of the Campo Centrale del Veneto Open promoted by the Veneto Region are available on the Clappit online ticket office, at the address: https://venetopen.com/ ticket/.
THE VENETO OPEN ON TV – The Veneto Open matches promoted by the Veneto Region will be broadcast live on SuperTennis TV (64 on digital terrestrial, 212 on Sky), as well as in streaming on the Supertennis.tv website and on the SuperTenniX digital platform.
