Following the first part of this article, which focused on Matilde Paoletti and Lisa Pigato, let’s draw now our attention to Luca Nardi and Matilde Mariani (bearing in mind that, of course, the disclaimer set in the first part applies also to these other players).
Luca Nardi (no nickname for him: I reserve nicknames to girls) has a background which differs to that of Paoletti and Pigato, in the sense that, even if he hasn’t turned 14 yet, he must be considered more experienced than the peers of his I spoke about: Luca has already gained a noticeable background in international events, having won last January “Les Petits as” and being ranked as 3rd in the U14 Tennis Europe ranking and 52nd in the overall ranking. Nevertheless, this in Salsomaggiore was his debut on the ITF junior tour; yet he was able to reach the main draw, having beaten in the last qualification round, in three tight sets, Italian Alessandro Ingarao, a guy ranking 300th in the ITF Junior tour and, more noticeably, aging four years more than Nardi. In the first round of the main draw Luca lost by Tortora, a good player 3 years older than him: Luca gave up only at the tie-break of the third set. I’ve have seen only the first set of Nardi’s second qualification round, played against Alessandro Perruzza, a guy born in 2000 and without an ITF ranking: he won this match by 7-5 6-4.
The funny side is that I did not immediately realise how good Nardi is: for his age he is really tall and thick, he looks and plays like a 16-17 year old. Until I reminded myself that he is actually 4 year younger than what he seemed to be, I was thinking he wasn’t as talented as I heard he should be. The serve of Nardi is not a bomb yet, if his opponent is much older than him: meaning that against a peer of his he possibly could hit with his serve a direct point after another. I believe that growing up his serve will become a primary weapon, because of the enormous amount of work he already does with his legs while swinging (legs make the difference in serve: think about how much great servers as Becker, Sampras, Ivanisevic used them) – please note that this does not mean that Nardi is Sampras, it just means I would be surprised if he won’t become able to hit a serve at 190 kmh in the future. Not being his serve so fast (yet – compared to a 16 year old guy’s), the shot of his which impressed me more is his forehand, which is a real hammer. I have no particular observations instead on Luca’s backhand, which can be defined as a “classic” two-handed shot. A further feature I noticed in Luca’s game is his willingness to attack the net, even if from time to time he messes up when volleying; at a point in the match he even tried a drop shot followed by a lob: I don’t remember if his effort was successful, but it was impressive indeed. A coach who sat next to me (again Seba Vazquez, already mentioned in part 1) was impressed by another feature of Luca, possibly too sophisticated for me to get by myself, which is his timing: he thought that it was so perfect that the ball seemed to stop in front of him, allowing Luca always to always hit the best possible shot.
Strangely enough, in the match against Perruzza, Luca was leading by 4-1 in the first set and then his opponent reached him on 4-4, or took a lead of 5-4, I can’t recall. Anyway he was able to win the set, after all. I was told that the same (or better, the opposite) happened in the second set, when Luca was down 4-1 and then he won by 6-4. The mother of another player told me it’s usual for this young boy to disappear and come back in the match: maybe he still has to gain some skills in concentration, which would be normal – the guy is only 13, even if he looks and plays as if he was 17.
The last player I have seen is the one I most wanted to see: Matilde Mariani (a.k.a. “Miss Elegance”, copyright Marucci). I had already attended a match of Matilde, in the qualification rounds in Bergamo’s 15k held in February, and I felt in love: I am not the only one, it seems. Matilde was born in 2002 and, again, she is basically unexperienced of the ITF Junior tour, having competed, up to now, only in four tournaments (her best result was the quarterfinals reached in a Grade 5 in Tunisia). I don’t know if Matilde is strong, but for sure she is the most elegant player I have checked out: she has nothing to share with Suarez Navarro’s style, but the effortless swing which she owns, especially with her forehand, and, in contrast, the pace she generates when hitting, is a unique feature which reminds me of the great Spanish player: she plays with such a grace I have never seen in any other junior I observed (not even in the Beloved One).
Differently from the girls I spoke about in the first part, Matilde is quite tall, about 1.70 and a lefty; again, when serving, she uses more her legs than her peers: being quite slender, currently her first serve is not harming but, as I said for Nardi, I think it will increase in power, because the swing is indeed there. Up to now, I must say that she does not capitalise greatly the advantage of being a lefty, also because she usually hits her first serve quite flat, making it more difficult to find tight angles. Sometimes also her second serve is (too) flat and for that she double faults a bit, but nothing crazy. I spoke about her forehand above: I would only add that that’s also a shot she hits quite flat, but with very good results; it’s her best shot, the pivot of her game, and she hits tons of winners with it. As per her double-handed backhand, she is able to hit it quite strong if the ball is low, but she loses pace if the ball is over her waist. Miss Elegance is indeed a base-line attacker, always trying to be offensive and to be in control of the exchange; seldom you will find her close to the net, also because her conception of “chip and charge” ends with the “chip” part, which is intended to be, most of times, a direct winner: of course, this leads her to be quite faulty. Nevertheless, I found Matilde’s game more consistent then when I saw her in Bergamo. The match I saw of Matilde in Salsomaggiore was played against Alessandra Mazzola, a girl born in ’99 who is not Navratilova, but who can hit the ball back two million times before her opponent can eventually score a point: Mazzola’s great defensive skills makes her a real tester for Matilde who, instead, as said, does not find in consistency and regularity her best qualities. No surprise that the match between the two lasted something like 2 hours and a half, ending 6-3 6-7 6-4 in favour of Mariani: though I did not expect Matilde to finally get rid of such kind of an opponent and I think she would have lost this match if she had played it only three months ago. Two hours after this marathon, Matilde had to play the third qualification round against Giulia Peoni, a strong player who in 2015 reached the finals in Torneo Avvenire in Milan: Matilde was easily dismissed by this more consistent and experienced opponent, but she was highly penalised by the previous never-ending match and, in the following one, she could not move anymore.
Miss Elegance is indeed my favourite Italian junior; I hope she can achieve results as good as my favourite foreign juniors, not only for her, but for the sport, because it’s a true pleasure watching Matilde playing tennis (and don’t be mean: that’s not only because she is cute).
