A Malta Tennis Federation team recently formed part of a sizeable contingent led by the Maltese Olympic Committee that travelled to Sardinia to participate in the Island Games (COJI 2012).
The Maltese tennis team was led by captain Maurizio Cappello and composed of Bernard Cassar Torreggiani, Raphael Sammut, Rebecca McCarthy and Katrina Sammut.
The team won bronze medals for their overall placing in the team event, behind a strong team from Sicily and hosts Sardegna, with the boys placing third and the girls fifth in their respective draws.
Bernard and Raphael opened their commitments in convincing fashion, winning easily their first encounters in straight sets in both the singles and doubles events. The Maltese boys were drawn to meet the number 1 ranked and eventual tournament winners, Sicily, in the semifinal. In two tight and keenly contested matches, Bernard lost to Riccardo Chessari 5-7 1-6, while Raphael went down to Luca Cantale 3-6 7-5 2-6 in a marathon match. In the encounter for third place against the Azores, the Maltese boys played strongly with Bernard beating Gonzalo Bettencourt 6-1 6-3 while Raphael beat Andre Melo 6-2 6-2. The Maltese also won the doubles 6-4 1-6 10-4 to clinch third place.
In the girls’ draw, Malta was extremely unlucky to be drawn against the no 1 ranked team, Sicily, in the first round. Notwithstanding this, Rebecca and Katrina played high level tennis against older and more experienced opponents, before falling out to the eventual tournament winners.
The Maltese girls recovered from this setback to win the consolation event by beating Jersey 2-1 and Elba 3-0 in contrasting matches.
Rebecca and Katrina won their singles matches against Jersey in straight sets but lost the doubles in the closest of encounters 6-2 6-7 8-10 in the deciding tiebreak.
Against Elba, both Maltese girls had to fight back after falling a set down to win their singles matches. The doubles encounter proved to be a formality with Rebecca and Katrina winning convincingly 6-0 6-0.
The Island Games were a positive experience to the Maltese players in their preparation for upcoming local and international junior tournaments and their performances augur well for the future.
The Malta Tennis Federation is grateful for the support of the Maltese Olympic Committee in assisting in the development of the national and top junior players.
The Federation also acknowledges the support of its official sponsors, Bank of Valletta and GasanMamo in assisting its national and junior development programmes.