- Published: 04 May 2024
Giorgia Piccolin’s extraordinary week (no. 97 in the world ranking) continues at the Saudi Smash. After having passed the three qualifying rounds of the tournament which has a lot of participants equal to a world championship, in the thirty-second round he beat, under the guidance of Elena Timina, 3-2 (11-6, 11-9, 5 -11, 8-11, 11-8) the Taiwanese Li Yu-Jhun (n. 51). A result that further fuels her hopes of competing in the Paris Olympics.
On Monday at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah she will face Polish Natalia Bajor (n. 52) in the round of 32, who recovered from 0-2 and 2-7 in the third set to 3-2 (6-11, 9-11, 12- 10, 11-7, 11-7) the Romanian Bernadette Szocs (n. 9).
From 5-5 the Italian reached 7-5 and from 8-6 she got four set-points (10-6), taking advantage of the first. In the second set Piccolin reversed the situation from 2-4 (6-4) and from 6-5 he extended the lead (8-5). From 9-6 she was paired (9-9) and won the last two rallies.
When the game resumed, the Bolzano team came back from 2-5 (4-5) and were separated again (4-8), losing the third quarter. In the fourth, Piccolin went up 5-2 from 2-2. From 7-5 she suffered a break of 5-0 (7-10) and at the second set point the Asian extended the match to the “beautiful” one.
Piccolin broke out at 3-1, was hooked (3-3) and changed sides at 5-3, then pushed to 8-4. From 8-6 she rose to four match points (10-6) and on her third a winning serve gave her the dream of progressing to the next round.
