Gabriele Maria Noce in the photo
There will be no Italians in the final of the Lazzaroni Cup scheduled, starting from 10.30 am tomorrow, Saturday 15th, on the central court of the Piana Vincolato tennis club, in Chieti. In fact, it will be the turn of the 22-year-old Ukrainian Oleksandr Ovcharenko, seeded no. 8 of the ITF of Chieti and n.635 in the world ranking, and the French peer Lilian Marmousez, n.675, competing for the trophy and succeeding, in the roll of honor, Marcello Serafini from Romagna.
As expected, the more than 250 positions difference in the ranking between Marmousez and Gabriele Maria Noce made themselves felt even if the second set was rather balanced. The French player, after having dominated the first match, despite a small physical problem at 5-4 in favor of the Italian Noce (n.939) in the second set, promptly recovered. Thus, after having made it 5-5, Marmousez also managed to break Noce’s serve in the next game and then definitively close the score with the score of 62/75. However, the second semi-final won by the Ukrainian Ovcharenko 61/67(5)/75 over the young Ribecai from Lucca at the end of a match characterized by numerous breaks and counterbreaks lasted a good three hours and 10 minutes. After a quick first set in favor of the player from Kiev, the match took a decisive turn at the start of the second match. In the third set, Ovcharenko immediately took the lead 4-1 but Ribecai had the strength to recover. The decisive break, by the Ukrainian, came in the 12th game after a real battle. In the doubles final, Ricca and Virgili from Rose were defeated by the Rottoli-Sorrentino pair.
