NEWS

Great win of Maria Vittoria Viviani, the latest addition to the San Marino Tennis Academy. The promising young 15 year old was the star of the day at Wavertree Tennis Centre in Liverpool, where it is in progress the Nike Junior International (ITF Grade 5, hard indoor). Maria Vittoria gave the show and made a real "boom", beating the most favored of the tournament, the British Katarina Weymouth, # 533 in the world ranking U18. A truly amazing performance that the Lombard, to add to the convincing debut Monday, when was rid of another English player, Alice Gillan. The final score (6-4, 1-6, 6-0) has allowed Viviani to reach the quarter-finals in the ITF Junior for the third time this season. The next hurdle will be represented by the Irish Jennifer Timotin.

Nothing to do, however, for Sofiya Kovalets. Yesterday, the Ukrainian of the STA (seeded #8), playing in New Delhi in the first round of the ITF tournament ($ 50,000, hard outdoor), was defeated by the Austrian Barbara Haas after comfortably winning the first set (6-0) and have missed two match points consecutive tie-break the second set. In the third set Sofiya has been found to lead 5-3 and serve for the match at 5-4, before suffering the comeback of the opponent, who finished 7-5 on snatching victory.