After Paris, London. After Roland Garros, Wimbledon. Mattia Bellucci has taken a liking to it and has also added the most important green in tennis history to his collection. In fact, from Monday he will be on the grass of the London club after beating David Goffin in the last round of qualifying. “I’m excited”, the first words after diving onto the lawn, immediately after a winning forehand volley that ended the match. Another moment of growth for the left-handed player who trains at Quanta Village.
From London to Milan, from a Grand Slam tournament to a clay-court challenger. An individual sport by definition, tennis in recent years has sublimated the importance of staff, of the coach on the sidelines. Giorgio Galimberti, now based in Romagna, had Maurizio Riva following him when he played, the last Milanese to join the Italian Davis Cup team. Now Galimba is on the other side, he is the coach as well as number one of the Academy he developed in Cattolica. He was on the sidelines on the Thursday of the double round at the Harbour. And the results were there to see. Because his pupil, Enrico Dalla Valle, not only won a late morning fight against a Fonio exhausted by cramps so much that he remained on the table among the plants for a long time after the match, but he also did the encore in the afternoon against Tseng, reaching the semifinal, his second in his career. “Giorgio has his academy, I am satisfied with the work and when he can travel with me I am happy. I hope you can see us together more often, it would mean that things are going well” explained Dalla Valle.
“I am very satisfied with the collaboration. He is a very passionate person and our characters fit well: he knows how to alternate the stick and the carrot in the right way, he was a great player and he knows how to manage my personality and my game. I am grateful to him and to all the staff at the academy”.
The other surprise of the day is Samuel Vincent Ruggeri: he had never come so far in a challenger.
Deserved semi-final given that in the morning he defeated the favorite Alberto Ramos Vinolas and then in the afternoon he also beat Ivan Gakhov. Bergamasco already had a good group of home fans in the quarter-finals, who knows for the semi-final.
ASPRIA TENNIS CUP – BCS TROPHY (€74,825, clay)
Singles Quarterfinals
Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (ITA) b. Ivan Gakhov (RUS) 7-6(5) 6-4 ; Enrico Dalla Valle (ITA) b. Chun-Hsin Tseng (TPE) 6-0 6-4; Filip Cristian Jianu (ROM) b. Elmer Moller (DAN) 2-6 6-2 retired; Federico Agustin Gomez (ARG) b. Vilius Gaubas (LTU) 6-1 6-4
Semi-finals schedule, Friday
From 1.30pm doubles, then singles: Dalla Valle-Jianu; followed by Ruggeri-Gomez
