National Championships – Italy
The Italian Championships will be played from the 1st to the 3rd of March in Bolzano which will host the Nationals for the first time. The location will be the Table Tennis Center “Maso della Pieve”.
The most important national event is organized by Italian Table Tennis Federation and the Provincial Committee of Bolzano in collaboration with the City of Bolzano. Sponsors are Stag and Iset Marketing.
In Men’s Singles all the best athletes of national ranking will be present. Niagol Stoyanov (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) the defending champion will try to confirm the title and his strongest opponents will be Leonardo Mutti the first seed and runner up last year Mihai Bobocica and Marco Rech Daldosso (Aeronautica Militare) Jordy Piccolin (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) Maurizio Massarelli (TT Ennio Cristofaro) Daniele Pinto (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) Matteo Mutti (Milano Sport Tennistavolo) Antonino Amato and Damiano Seretti (Top Spin Messina) Paolo Bisi (Cral Comune di Roma) Stefano Tomasi (Marcozzi Cagliari) Romualdo Manna (Apuania Carrara) and Francesco Lucesoli (Upr Montemarciano).
Bobocica won the title six times (2007-2009-2011-2012-2013-2017) Stoyanov twice (2014-2018) and three other players once each: Tomasi (2010) Leonardo Mutti (2015) and Rech Daldosso (2016).
In Women’s Singles the best seeds are Chiara Colantoni (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo) Debora Vivarelli (Centro Sportivo Esercito) Veronica Mosconi (Polisportiva Bagnolese) Giorgia Piccolin (Centro Sportivo Esercito) who won last year Jamila Laurenti (Gruppi Sportivi della Polizia di Stato – Fiamme Oro) runner up in 2018 Le Thi Hong Loan (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo) Giulia Cavalli (Eppan Tischtennis Raiffeisen) Katja Milic (Sportni Krozek Kras) Cristina Semenza (Polisportiva Bagnolese) Arianna Barani (Anspi Tennistavolo Cortemaggiore) Bianca Bracco (Alfieri di Romagna TT Edera) Krisztina Nagy (Tennistavolo Coccaglio) Nicole Arlia (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo) and Martina Nino (Tennistavolo Torino). There will be the come back of the great champion Tan Wenling Monfardini (Tennistavolo Castel Goffredo). She is no.24 seed and she hasn’t played the Championships for many years.
Piccolin climbed the top step of the podium in 2018 Mosconi in 2015 and Monfardini in 2008.
The competition starts on March 1st at 12 with Mixed Doubles followed at 3 30 pm by Men’s doubles and at 4 pm by Women’s doubles. At 9 am of Thursday (March 2nd) the qualification groups of Men’s and Women’s Singles will start and go on for all the day. On Sunday (March 3rd) the main draws will designate the new champions.
