Italian hopeful players have mixed fortunes.

This time, Men did it better.
Italian Players both sexes made the finals of two Pro tournaments on Sunday. Schiavone at the Fortis Championships, in Luxembourg, Volandri at Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, in Palermo. And this is itself a pretty good result. At the end of day, Volandri won for once and improve his pathetic record in finals, that now stands at 2-6, and Francesca sadly lost as usual (Francesca lost 8 finals out of 8 so far).
Volandri won a 3 sets battle. After having lost a seesaw first set, “Filo” came from behind, absolutely rolling, playing like a genius against a tough opponent, moving him left, right, left, right, that the crowd really appreciated a lot. Lapentti on his side had to cope with a physical illness, ‘cause it was a little sore from his previous matches; with the score level at one-set all he was clutching his leg and calling for the trainer. Having little energy to play, the Ecuadorean he tried to pull out the bag his “money shot”, a dangerous dropshot. Volandri toughed this out, playing unbelievable tennis and moving around pretty well, and everything went fine for him, after two consecutive defeats in the Palermo final.
With regards to Schiavone, we should say “the curse continues”. Ever since Nadia Petrova threw the monkey off her back last fall in Linz, Francesca has inherited the honour of best (ranked) player to have never won a title. A very good player that has never won anything but Fed Cup 2006 title, even though she has done a lot. Last week someone was saying “If Schiavone doesn't win this now, she will never win a title...It’s now or never...Don’t waste this chance, Francesca. Please win”.
Once again a positive week for Francesca, who sealed a 6-1 6-1 win against Patty Schnyder and overcame a hot player like Aga Radwanska. But it wasn’t enough to clinch the title. This time was Bondarenko to bar the way. The Ukrainan is not properly the best player in the world but in the final she played out of her skin, making nearly no mistakes with her killer forehand. Some might say “Alona Bondarenko was like Mary Pierce with legs”. Yeah, that’s correct, guys. Francesca tried to change the rhythm throwing more junks / dropshots and slices, but there was really nothing else to do against such an opponent who was hard hitting with surgical precision throughout the match. We don’t know what to say...If Francesca played more aggressive game and didn’t leave so much initiative to the opponent, she would be a different player. That's about it.