Cappelletti-Ramos end Saarlouis hoodoo; Cimatti-Nobile retain title
Michele Cappelletti and Antomi Ramos secured a first Sand Series Saarlouis Classic title on Sunday, while Sofia Cimatti and Nicole Nobile retained the title they won last year.
Italian Cappelletti hasn’t always enjoyed the harder courts produced for the urban setting in Germany, however, having fallen at the quarter-finals last year, neither the courts nor opponents could stand in the way of his partnership with Spaniard Ramos as the pair swept to the title, their seventh victory of a fantastic year so far, and sixth Sand Series title overall.
The number one seeds had a serene route to the final, dropping only 13 games in total. However, they were pushed all the way by Nicolas Gianotti and Mattia Spotto, who entered the match tied two apiece in head-to-heads in 2022. Indeed, the Sand Series Gran Canaria Classic champions took the first set 7-4 in a tie-break. Cappelletti-Ramos fought back to take the second set 6-3. Having only won their first match tie-break of the year at the BT400 Parnu last weekend, Cappelletti-Ramos were able to maintain their level and make it two in a row to secure the title 10-7 in the breaker.
The pair will head to Terracina for the World Championships as the team to beat. Cappelletti said: “Our season to now, 2022, is a perfect season and we hope to continue like that.”
The women’s draw saw a repeat of the all-Italian 2021 final, number one seeds Giulia Gasparri and Ninny Valentini hoping to reverse the result against number two seeds Sofia Cimatti and Nicole Nobile.
They entered the match confident after victory over their opponents last weekend in Parnu, taking their 2022 head-to-head record against Cimatti-Nobile to 3-1. With three titles already in 2022, including the last Sand Series in Brasilia in June, Cimatti and Nobile had their own reasons to be confident.
A high-quality final was decided over two close sets, and it was the Sand Series result that was to prove prophetic, the number two seeds retaining their title 6-4 6-4. This is the pair’s fourth Sand Series title, and they will now hope to use this momentum to propel them to World Championship success.
Cimatti said: “We were really focussed in this tournament and we are really happy to have won. We play together every match; we had some difficult moments but together we work well and reached our goal so now we will be focused on the World Championships.”