Tennis, Golarsa Cup: Kravchenko-Tobacco final

The Golarsa Cup final will be a challenge between two players who train together and know each other very well. Fausto Tabacco from Messina will face the Ukrainian Georgii Kravchenko, today n.514 ATP. The M25 event of the ITF circuit on the Golarsa Academy courts (30 thousand dollars in prize money, clay) sees an all-blue final fade away on a scorching Friday – with peaks of 37 degrees – but welcomes a player who at 25 is trying to relaunch himself in Italy. Number 56 in the world as an Under 18 player, the Ukrainian (who now trains in the Mxp Tennis Team group in Milan) beat Jack Draper and played on par with Arnaldi and Davidovich Fokina, then as a professional he never went beyond number 371. Overcoming the Palermo player Giuseppe La Vela after almost three hours (interspersed with a short stop at the end of the second set due to the excessive heat), Kravchenko has reached the final act and will try to win the his first title in a 30 thousand dollars, after four successes in the 15 thousand between 2019 and 2025. Vela seemed to have brought the match to his side after taking the second set (at the fifth set-point), especially by gaining an initial margin of 2-0 in the third. Instead, the opponent changed gear, while the Sicilian ran out of fuel and lost the last six games of the match. “We played at a high level – explained the Ukrainian from Kiev in excellent Italian – but physically I finished with more energy than him. I had confidence in my tennis but I had to adapt to the conditions and the heat, after the week in the Czech Republic”. A few days ago in Ceska Lipa, the last act of another M25 saw him defeated in front of his compatriot Oleksii Krutykh, while this time Georgii’s hope is to take the trophy.

FAUSTO TOBACCO IN THE FINAL

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Opposite Kravchenko, competing for success in the first edition of the Golarsa Cup will be Fausto Tabacco, 24 years old, from Messina, who shares training sessions on the Mxp fields with the Ukrainian. The balance in the second semi-final essentially lasted just a handful of games, because it then became clear that Gianmarco Ferrari’s physical condition would not be sufficient to allow him to play an equal match against an opponent in excellent shape. The Tuscan also called a medical time-out, when however the situation was already compromised (6-2 and 3-0). Shortly afterwards, the surrender: 6-2 6-0 in an hour and 21 minutes. “I thank my brother Giorgio – joked the Sicilian – who tired Ferrari out well in the previous round. I’m happy to have put in a solid performance. The final will be a derby with another friend, even if on the field everyone will give everything to win”. Tobacco, unlike Kravchenko, has already won an M25 tournament, but in 2023 (in Monastir). The two friends, curiously, despite being almost the same age and often attending the same tournaments, have never faced each other before. Saturday’s program includes the singles final from 11am: entry to the Golarsa Academy in via dei Ciclamini 18 is always free.