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The Italian teams deserved their berth in the main draw of the Italy Major Premier Padel starting at the Foro Italico on Monday May 23rd as they moved through to the final round in the pre-qualifications. Di Giovanni is the No.1 player in the national rankings, Bruno and Mezzetti became Italian champions in 2019.
di Marco Caldara | 19 maggio 2022
Pre-qualifications for the Italy Major Premier Padel are set to end today. But their most relevant verdict has been reached. Lorenzo Di Giovanni partnering Federico Beltrami face Michele Bruno with Luca Mezzetti in the final. Both teams, however, will gain a main draw wild card, joining Marco Cassetta and Simone Cremona, Riccardo Sinicropi and Daniele Cattaneo.
Di Giovanni and Beltrami, the No.1 seeds in the pre-qualifications draw, completed a comeback win over Sardella/Galli before dismissing more easily Rossi/Fanti. The Lanciano-born Di Giovanni, now living in Milan, is the No.1 player in the national rankings made by the Italian Tennis Federation. He worked as a tennis coach with the former WTA stars Roberta Vinci and Francesca Schiavone, before starting a new career as a padel player.
Di Giovanni partnered Riccardo Sinicropi in 2021. Selected for both the European and the World Championships, this year he began playing with the Argentinian Mauro Agustin Salandro. As a team, they took part to the opening Major Premier Padel event in Doha. In Rome, he and the 1993-born Beltrami will make their debut as a team in the "pro" circuit.
Luca Mezzetti
Michele Bruno
The final main draw wild card went to an all-Roman duo, Michele Bruno and Luca Mezzetti. Mezzetti, a left-hander playing on the right side, is ranked No.335 in the FIP rankings while Bruno lays 118 spots above him at No.217.
Four years ago, in 2018, they won as a team an international tournament staged inside the Foro Italico during the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the famous combined tennis event. In 2019, they also became national champions winning the finals for the title in Riccione.
This time, beating Piga/Garali and De Lucia/Scarà without losing a single set, they gained the biggest opportunity in their career so far as a team.
Bruno, a pillar of the Italian national team, partnered Andres Britos in 2019 in the final clash that gave Italy the historical European title against France. In Rome, he aims to live the same emotion in an even more prestigious stage.