Youth tennis. Arginelli and Foggia compete in the Summer Cup. The Azzurri secure a historic second place.

The Italian Under-12 national team finished a historic second place in the Final Eight of the 'Summer Cup by Dunlop', held in Ajaccio, Corsica. The Italian team, led by captain Alberto Tirelli and the two Club la Meridiana representatives Carlotta Arginelli and Sofia Foggia (as well as Piedmontese Rebecca Carla Francia), only lost in the final on Sunday to the Czech Republic, the heavy favorite among the eight competing nations, who won 3-0. Arginelli lost to Teresa Vychodilova 6-2, 6-0, Foggia fell 6-4, 6-3 to Nicole Kurylova, while in the (now irrelevant) doubles match, Arginelli and Francia were defeated by Vanessa Balej and Kurylova 6-4, 6-3. An excellent second place for Italy, led once again, as in the preliminaries when she had only left one game to her rivals, by a great Carlotta who in total won 13 of the 16 matches played.

In Corsica, the Azzurrini had finished top of the group with Spain, Romania and Ukraine, earning a place in the final: on Thursday they had won 3-0 over Spain with Arginelli's success over Sagougou Ponce (6-2 6-2) and Foggia's victory over Ruiz Perez (6-1 7-6), as well as the victory in the doubles between Arginelli and France over Ponce and De Pablo (6-2 6-3); on Friday, Italy had also defeated Romania 2-1 (winning 2-1 in their debut match against Ukraine) with points from Arginelli (7-5 6-2 over Munteanu) and the decisive one in the doubles between Arginelli and France (6-3 6-3 over Iliescu-Munteanu) after the Romanians had drawn thanks to Iliescu (6-0 6-1 over Foggia); On Saturday, the defeat against Ukraine had been so irrelevant (Arginelli's only point over Veresklia due to withdrawal) given that the qualification was secured due to the better set difference.

Davide Setti