Elaine Genovese and Francesca Curmi had to settle for second place in the women’s tennis doubles competition yesterday after going down to Raluca Serban and Maria Siopacha, of Cyprus, 6-2 6-4 in the final.
Genovese and Curmi produced their best on court but their best efforts were not enough to deny the top seeds from occupying the top placing on the podium.
In the opening set, Curmi and Genovese were broken a couple of times and that turned out to be their undoing as Serban and Siopacha won it 6-2.
There was a better start for the Maltese girls as the second set got underway, breaking their opponents’ serve to take a 4-3 lead. However, Serban, the women’s no.1 in the San Marino GSSE rankings, then came to the fore as her powerful groundstrokes proved decisive for the Cypriots to win the next three games and seal victory and title.
“The match was much tighter than the scoreline might show,” Genovese told Times of Malta. “It wasn’t easy for them to beat us but I think in the end their experience came handy when things got tough in key moments on court.
“Serban is a professional player, ranked no.350 in the world. So that says a lot on what a talented player she is. However, we should be satisfied with our matches and final position here.
“This is the first time that I am playing with Francesca and I feel a silver medal was very good. Hopefully, we can now build on this result for the future.”
Curmi said she enjoyed her first experience at the Games.
“I felt really proud to have been given this chance to play for my country in the GSSE… this was a great experience,” the 14-year-old said.
“We didn’t do badly and I’m returning home with two medals in the bag. This was a useful learning experience for me and now I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to play at this level.”
In the men’s doubles semi-finals, Matthew Asciak and Omar Sudzuka
were no match for Monaco’s Florent
Diep and Thomas Oger who made it to the gold medal match following a 6-1 6-0 victory.
Diep and Oger, doubles winners the last five GSSEs, lived up to their billing as Asciak and Sudzuka were classified in third place.
Yesterday’s matches brought to an end our players’ run in tennis competitions in San Marino. In all, they collected five medals – one silver and four bronze.
Coach Steve Caruana said this was the highest number of medals in one single edition of the Games. “This time we had a mixture of experienced and upcoming players,” Caruana told Times of Malta.
“Francesca Curmi is only 14 years old but her contribution to the team was exceptional and together with Elaine reached the doubles final.
“Elaine sprung a pleasant surprise in the singles when she eliminated the more-quoted Gioia Barbieri to reach the last four where she was eliminated by the top seed.”
Caruana said the luck of the draw deserted the Maltese players in the men’s competitions.
“It was very difficult for our players to make inroads in the men’s tournament as the draw did not favour us,” the coach said.
“Matthew was not 100 per cent fit but they still managed two podium places.
“Really, what pleased us most here was the attitude shown by the players. Their serious approach during training and matches makes us more confident that we can achieve more and that there’s a bright future for our sport.”