Fabio Fognini made his debut at the Circolo della Stampa Sporting with a success: 6-2 6-3 against Zeppieri (photo Francesco Panunzio)
The third day of the main draw was finally the good one, the third attempt… too. Because on the Thursday of the Piedmont Open Intesa Sanpaolo the organizers tried twice in vain to start the matches, before managing to do so at around 3.45pm, when the sun began to shine in Turin and the Campo Stadio del Circolo della Stampa Sporting welcomed the first big blue competing in the tournament, Luciano Darderi. Fresh from the precious third round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the tennis player born in 2002 also confirmed in Piedmont a state of form which in this first half of the season has allowed him to change the dimension of his career. Against the Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Darderi had won three of the last four matches and made poker in less than 90 minutes, in a match governed with superiority. The scoreboard says that he was trailing by a break in both sets (3-1 in the first, 2-0 in the second), but then he raised the pace of his tennis and had no major problems in prevailing by 6- 4 6-3. “The first match of a tournament – he said – is always complicated, especially after a few rainy days like the past ones. It was a tight duel and I’m happy with how I handled it. Given the rather slow playing conditions, I tried to vary the patterns a bit by going to the net and using the short ball: it worked. The secret to my explosion? The hard work I’ve been doing for years. We had already glimpsed the fruits at the end of last summer, and after the winter preparation it got better and better. This tournament is important in view of Roland Garros, to score points, gain confidence and play as many matches as possible.”
Even faster than Darderi, on the Stadium Field was Fabio Fognini, competing again at Sporting sixteen years after his victory in the old Challenger, which gave him the first career title in the category. In 2008 the Ligurian had greeted with an easy success and returned in the same way, overcoming with a rapid 6-2 6-3 Giulio Zeppieri, recovered as a lucky loser but dominated by the technical superiority of the former top-10, still capable – albeit without the continuity of the best times – to express tennis as brilliant as it is effective. In the second round (entirely moved to Friday), Fognini will be the protagonist of one of the duels most awaited by the public, given that on the other side of the net he will find Matteo Arnaldi, number 3 on the scoreboard. For Italy, Francesco Maestrelli was also promoted in the late afternoon of Thursday and won the qualifying match against Mattia Bellucci in two sets (6-4 6-2) and on Friday they will play for access to the quarter-finals with another player who started from the qualifiers, the Brazilian Fernando Meligeni Alves (4-6 6-3 6-1 to Thiago Tirante). Further information on the website www.piemonteopen.com and on the Instagram page @piemonteopen.
RESULTS
Singular. First round: Luciano Darderi (Ita) b. Camilo Ugo Carabelli (Arg) 6-4 6-3, Francesco Maestrelli (Ita) b. Mattia Bellucci (Ita) 6-4 6-2, Fernando Meligeni Alves (Bra) b. Thiago Tirante (Arg) 4-6 6-3 6-1, Fabio Fognini (Ita) b. Giulio Zeppieri (Ita) 6-2 6-3.
