Day 5 women The final will be Spain-Italy. Spaniards for the ‘Tenth’, Azzurre hope on Cagliari crowd
July 26, 2024
It will be Italy between Spain and the tenth women’s title in the FIP European Padel Championships: great showdown on Saturday at TC Cagliari. The Spaniards closed 3-0 in their semifinal tie against Portugal: the youngsters Ale Alonso and Andrea Ustero, who are both in the top 20 of the FIP ranking, won the first match with a double 6-0 win over Gaspar/Ribeiro, while Marta Ortega and Jessica Castelló gave Spain the decisive point with a 6-2 6-3 win over Sofia Araujo (who plays with ‘Martita’ in the Premier Padel circuit) and Ana Catarina Nogueira. Spain and Portugal also took to the court for the last match, with Lucia Sainz and Patty Lllaguno (two-time finalists in Premier Padel 2024) dropping just one game to Castro Vilela/Rodrigues.
The other semifinal was an incredible fight, which started at 9 a.m. and ended seven hours later. The first match was won by Italy, thanks to the comeback of Carlotta Casali and Emily Stellato, 4-6 6-3 6-3 over Lucile Pothier and Charlotte Soubrié; France, however, didn’t give up, managing to regain a set down in the second match. Alix Collombon and Lea Godallier, in two hours and 41 minutes, won 5-7 7-6 6-2 over Carolina Orsi and Giulia Sussarello. The match between Jessica Ginier Barbier and Carla Touly against Giorgia Marchetti and Chiara Pappacena was then decisive, with the Italians able to close 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 33 minutes and to start the celebration of the Azzurre, which tomorrow will try to stop the Spanish domination. “You need courage, it has already happened to beat a Spanish pair, we did it in Krakow in the women’s final of the European Games with Orsi and Marchetti – said Italian captain Marcela Ferrari -. And then in life and in sport you need to dream and until the ball stops you have to keep doing it”.
If Portugal and France will be back on court tomorrow for the final for third and fourth place, it will be Sweden (2-0 to Germany) and the Netherlands (2-1 to Denmark) who will play for fifth and sixth place.
