Good news on the doubles front as both all Italian pairings in the men’s and women’s Italian Open tournaments win on day 9.
The Italian Open had seen Italian players falling by the wayside, but on day nine there was reason to cheers.
Bolelli and Vavassori were first on court in the men’s doubles, taking on the no.2 seeds India’s Bopanna and Australia’s Ebden.
Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori are “clearly” enthusiastic about their win over Bopanna/Ebden which means quarterfinals at the Foro Italico. And not least because the narrow defeat in the Australian Open final still stings.
“Overall, we responded better than them and I think this was the key to our success,” says Bolelli.
“The secret of our doubles is that we are friends even off the court, we have a great relationship. And then we are enjoying the journey, the struggles, the victories”, echoes Vavassori.
“We wanted to take revenge already in Miami but despite a set advantage we didn’t succeed,” adds the 28-year-old from Turin. “In any case, it was a pleasure to have done it here on the ‘Pietrangeli’.
“There were a few too many breaks and some errors at the net but we were good at taking advantage of the opportunities. Today we really felt the warmth of the crowd and it was exciting: we hope to be able to play again.”
The final score was 6-2, 6-4 to the Italians.
Errani and Paolini are in the semis
On a sold out “Pietrangeli” Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini reached the semi-finals in with a championship tiebreak sealing the match: 6-3, 5-7, 10-5. It took the Italian women an hour and three quarters to oust Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok and on the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the latter seeded six in the doubles.
“Today was truly an incredible experience: the crowd was crazy,” says Sara. “I didn’t expect such support for doubles,” echoes Jasmine.
“And then it’s nice to have Tathiana (Garbin, the captain of Italy’s BJK Cup) in the stands to follow us, to see that she’s well: her support is always very important,” the two Italians underline in unison.
Their pairing began in 2023: “Last year in Paris I asked ‘Jas’ if we could play together as much as possible to try to qualify for the Olympics: I don’t know how we are at the moment but I think it’s pretty good . And to do my best to try to dream, because for me the Games are certainly one of the biggest dreams”, says Sara.
“I was flattered, I had already played with her. On the court she directs me and so I am calm and I have fun. I, but also my coach Renzo Furlan, always ask her a lot of questions and she really helped me a lot”, adds Jasmine.
“I stay more at the net, ‘Jas’ is more at the back of the field, the opposite of what happened with Roberta (Vinci)”, explains Errani. “Playing doubles doesn’t change my way of training too much and then I believe that, even though I work in a different way, it helps me grow and improve,” adds Paolini.
