Internationals: Pellegrino advances, Bronzetti, Trevisan and Ruggeri eliminated

Despite the concern in the morning, due to the not very encouraging forecast, the weather on the first Tuesday of the Italian Internationals proved to be lenient. However, the opponents of the three blue players involved in the main draw were not so. Some declining after an excellent start, some fighting until the end with all of themselves, Jennifer Ruggeri and Lucia Bronzetti surrender respectively to Zeynep Sonmez (who played with a noticeable bandage on her left thigh, in clear difficulty in the first set) by 4-6 6-2 6-2 and to McCartney Kessler with the score of 6-3 5-7 6-4. Martina Trevisan, who appeared well physically and above all from a gaming point of view, instead fights as best she can against Talia Gibson. But a lot of heart and a great second set, with a few too many regrets for the break advantage in the third, were not enough to avoid the 6-4 0-6 6-3 that the Australian inflicted on her, in her third victory in a row against an Italian. The good news for the Azzurri, however, comes from the qualifying scoreboard, with three victories out of four, by Pellegrino, Basiletti and Urgesi, and the only defeat suffered by Bondioli.

satisfaction

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The cover of the day can only be taken by Andrea Pellegrino. That at 29 years old, after his last appearance at the Foro Italico dates back to 2023, he will be able to play in the main draw in Rome for the first time, at the fifth attempt. And he does it after two great qualifying matches, in which he first dominated Hugo Gaston and then surprisingly overtook Martin Landaluce. 6-3 2-6 6-2 the final score in favor of the Apulian over the young Spaniard, eighth seed in the cadet draw. A very intense match, in which the blue player manages to hold better on the diagonal forehand, almost never giving his opponent time to accelerate. He closes a dominated third set with his arms in the air, and showing off a beautiful smile, which smacks of satisfaction, almost of relief, given that among other things he will be playing in a 1000 main draw for the first time, in a derby against Luca Nardi in the first round. There will therefore be thirteen Italians in the men’s singles, with Federico Bondioli who was unable to do anything against Dino Prizmic, winning 6-2 6-4.

businesses

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So in the qualifiers the girls ultimately do better than the boys, not without surprise. Noemi Basiletti and Federica Urgesi in fact gain the pass to the main draw by beating Daria Snigur and Veronika Erjavec respectively. However, it is Basiletti who is most surprising: n.427 in the world, born in 2006, his first experience at WTA level, despite being in the cadet draw. And it beats two top 100 in two days, first the n.85 Arango, then the n.95 Snigur. 6-3 6-7(8) 6-4 the final score in a battle of almost three hours, recovering from a break in the third set and without being discouraged after wasting three match points in the second. Demonstrating mental strength that is not to be taken for granted, and will face Ajla Tomljanovic in the first round. Federica Urgesi, born in 2005 and n.410 WTA, did even better, beating Erjavec, n.86 in the world, 6-4 6-1, dominating with only 8 points lost on serve. Also for her, the second top 100 hit in a row, after Zarazua: she will therefore play again in the main draw of the Internazionali d’Italia, and will do so against Viktorija Golubic. Last year he had managed three games against Andreescu.