stars on court in Cagliari

There is great expectation at the Cagliari Tennis Club. The best female players of the FIP PLATINUM, an event promoted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, Department of Tourism, Handicrafts and Trade, with the patronage of Cagliari Municipality and scheduled from October 2nd to 8th, are arriving in Sardinia. The star of the women’s draw is Argentina’s Maria Virginia Riera, vice-champion of the world and number 8 in the FIP ranking: Riera will be flying to Italy with her partner, Spain’s Tamara Icardo, who is at the number 14 position in the world ranking.

Just behind, in the ranking, are Spain’s Lucia Sainz and Patricia Llaguno, numbers 15 and 16, former world champions and second pair on the entry list in Sardinia, followed by Lucia Martinez Gomez (27) e Carmen Goenaga (23). If Alix Collombon (20) and Lea Godallier (44) will arrive in Italy after having triumphed in the French national championship (Collombon’s sixth title, Godallier’s third), for nine years Carolina Navarro Bjork has been leading the world ranking: at the age of 47, the player born in Malaga from an Andalusian father and a Swedish mother (and it was with Sweden, in 2022, that she played the World Cup after also wearing the Spanish national team jersey) still has a great desire to have fun and, above all, to win: she will try to do so with Marina Guinart. Overall, the top eight pairs on the entry list are made up of players among the top 37 in the world.

Many Italians will try, at home, to play a great tournament, trying to do the best and to arrive at the final weekend. Carolina Orsi, number 30 ranked and gold medal at the European Games in Krakow, will play with Spain’s Carla Mesa, while Lorena Vano will share the court with another Spaniard, Letizia Manquillo. Giorgia Marchetti (gold in Krakow with Orsi) and Chiara Pappacena will be playing as an all-Italian pair, but there will also be players from Portugal (the highest ranked is Ana Caterina Nogueira, world number 35), Netherlands (Marcella Koek and Stephanie Weterings), Belgium (Helena Wyckaert and An-Sophie Mestach) and Germany (Victoria Kurz and Denise Hoefer).