Apuania Carrara continued their successful row. In the Partenope gymnasium in Naples club clinched third Italian Cup as an addition to the Italian Super Cup raised at the beginning of the season and to five national championships.
The team led by Alessandro MERCIADRI beat in the final the usual great opponents from Top Spin Messina Fontalba trained by coach Wang HONG LIANG 3-0.
In the doubles Mihai BOBOCICA and Lubomir PISTEJ overcame Marco RECH DALDOSSO and João MONTEIRO to give their club good start. The first singles staged an international challenge at the highest level and Andrej GACINA took the lead in the first game and prevailed without problems. In the second one he reached Jonathan GROTH who had run fast out of the blocks and overtook him. The Croatian player missed the first two game-points and converted the third one. In the third game GACINA was always in the lead and withstood GROTH’s attempts to recover.
Top Spin Messina relied on RECH DALDOSSO who lost the first game and won the second and the third. PISTEJ was behind 1-2 and came back. In the decider he changed sides in the lead was recovered earned three match-point which vanished and converted the fourth one.
“We are proud of this result ” said Mihai BOBOCICA “even if I think that 3-0 does not reflect the real difference between the teams. In the decisive moments of the various games we managed to win the points sometimes with a bit of luck in particular in the second and third games of the doubles. In both we recovered and prevailed by the very narrow margin. Also the second game which opposed GACINA to GROTH could have gone in another direction but according to me Andrej fully deserved the win. In the last singles Lubomir came back. He never gives up and I’ve seen him win many matches like the one against RECH DALDOSSO. I was pretty confident that he would eventually make it.”
Mihai BOBOCICA/Lubomir PISTEJ – Marco RECH DALDOSSO/João MONTEIRO 3-0 (11-7 11-9 11-9)
Andrej GACINA – Jonathan GROTH 3-0 (11-7 13-11 11-8)
Lubomir PISTEJ – Marco RECH DALDOSSO 3-2 (12-10 2-11 8-11 11-9 13-11)
Final for the bronze medal:
Brunetti Castel Goffredo – Marcozzi Cagliari 3-2:
Alessandro BACIOCCHI/Luca BRESSAN – Antonino AMATO/Jorge CAMPOS 1-3 (11-8 5-11 7-11 8-11)
Viktor YEFIMOV – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 3-0 (11-5 11-8 11-9)
Luca BRESSAN – Jorge CAMPOS 0-3 (7-11 7-11 5-11)
Alessandro BACIOCCHI – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 3-1 (11-8- 11-8 8-11 11-8)
Viktor YEFIMOV – Antonino AMATO 3-0 (11-9 11-6 11-7)
Semifinals:
Top Spin Messina Fontalba – Marcozzi Cagliari 3-2
Marco RECH DALDOSSO/João MONTEIRO – Antonino AMATO/Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 2-3 (6-11 8-11 11-6 11-5 10-12)
Jonathan GROTH – Jorge CAMPOS 3-2 (11-8 7-11 15-13 11-13 11-5)
Marco RECH DALDOSSO – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 3-0 (11-4 11-6 11-9)
Matteo MUTTI – Jorge CAMPOS 2-3 (11-8 6-11 11-9 8-11 9-11)
Jonathan GROTH – Antonino AMATO 3-0 (11-7 11-6 11-4)
Apuania Carrara – Brunetti Castel Goffredo 3-0
Mihai BOBOCICA/Lubomir PISTEJ – Alessandro BACIOCCHI/Viktor YEFIMOV 3-0 (11-5 11-5 11-8)
Andrej GACINA – Luca BRESSAN 3-0 (11-8 11-8 11-5)
Mihai BOBOCICA – Viktor YEFIMOV 3-0 (11-8 11-6 11-9)