Monday, September 18, 2006

Standing ovation to the Italian Queens.


There are no words to describe my happiness. Charleroi 2006: The Italian team made history. 30 years after winning the Davis Cup tournament, once again the Italian flag waves over the world. The 2 triumphs have in common just a man: Corrado Barazzutti was there, at Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, back in those days, beating Jaime Fillol in the first round of DC finals, when Italy defeated Chile 4-1. The same Corrado this time has been the Captain of the Italian ship, which “landed” at Charleroi and took home the “pirates” treasure, better than Captain Jack Sparrow did in “Pirates of the Caribbean”. It gave us the goosebumps. Will remain memories to us all for many years to come.
Francesca (the Italian Lioness who breezed past Amelie Mauresmo in this Fed Cup run), Flavia (the cute and tough player we all hope to seeing soon bride to be, who leaded the team in Saragozza), Mara (a player still too often neglected that recently has level up her game), Roberta (unlucky year for her, but still hard to defeat in doubles), Tatiana, Maria Elena, Romina, Antonella and all the players who played over the past years...Thank for all. And let's enjoy the challenge of realizing our dreams for real. You showed the world that Italy is not only the best in soccer, spaghetti, pizza, wine and fashion.
Relating to the matches played in the hell of Spiroudome, the Italians deserved the win: didn't play the best matches of their lives (too many unforced errors in every match but the schiavone vs flipkens), but played better than Belgian opponents in all. And overall they played with heart and soul, giving their best even in the 2 matches lost to Justine, who grabbed the big points that always make the difference. The Belgian flagship player retired once again from the decisive doubles match. What to say: the knee injury that forced her to withdraw seems to be serious (a problem with the knees’ cartilage), something different from the stomach-ache (?) she got during the Aussie Open final.
Now the last challenge for the Italians is to break the top 10 wall in the rankings, a kind of tabu that has to be broken. And hopefully this win will give the Italian tennis movement a bit of momentum and can encourage the male (italian) players who didn’t so well lately.

Pubblicato da Michael_Pemulis alle 12:44 PM

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Terza di Copertina.

"Cementi di Gloria" è l'opera prima di Paolo Ricaldi, aka Mr. Pemulis, che nell'estate 2007 ha girato in lungo e largo i tornei di preparazione agli Us Open - il c.d. minicircuito chiamato Us Open Series - è tornato sano e salvo, anche se un po' intossicato di Tennis, e ci ha raccontato quanto visto, sentito e percepito nel Nuovo Mondo.
In questo reportage, che è un viaggio picaresco nel nordamerica, intorno al "vuoto" dello showbiz, l'autore alterna con grande potenza espressiva cronache sportive esilaranti, pagine di letteratura minimalista, storie surreali, incubi metropolitani abitati da personaggi dai nomi improbabili e aneddoti irresistibili; e lo fa utilizzando una vasta gamma di registri, che vanno dal comico al noir. Ne risulta un inno sghembo al tennis e alla vita in generale, che fa' di Ricaldi, la "next big thing" del panorama letterario mediterraneo.