Great tennis is back in Sardinia after last year's world events and enthusiasm skyrockets.
Alghero will host the competition between the women's national teams of Italy and France for the Billie Jean King Cup, the new name of the glorious Fed Cup.
With the presentation press conference, held today at the Regional Tourism Department, the approach to the challenge valid for the preliminary round of the competition, scheduled for 15 and 16 April on the green set of the Catalan Tennis Club, began.
The event was illustrated by the president of the Italian Tennis Federation, Angelo Binaghi, by the councilor for Tourism, Crafts and Commerce of the Sardinia Region, Gianni Chessa, by the mayor of Alghero, Mario Conoci, and by the captain of the national blue women's team Tathiana Garbin.
The capacity of the Alghero Tennis Club is 2,533 seats and there will be no limitations to the presence of the public.
The Council of Ministers has in fact approved, with the decree law of last March 24, the new rules for combating Covid-19 and, starting from the month of April, the capacity returns to 100% in outdoor sports facilities and indoors, which can also be accessed with the basic Green Pass, which is also obtained with the antigenic pad carried out in the previous 48 hours.
The FFP2 mask remains mandatory for sporting events, both outdoors and indoors, until April 30th.
Garbin summoned Camila Giorgi (n.30 WTA), Jasmine Paolini (n.47), Lucia Bronzetti (n.85), Martina Trevisan (n.88) and Elisabetta Cocciaretto (n.239).
For Bronzetti, 23-year-old from Villa Verucchio from Rimini, this week for the first time in his career among the top 100 in the WTA ranking, this is the first call-up to the Azzurri.
France captain Julien Benneteau has instead chosen Alizé Cornet (n.34 WTA), Caroline Garcia (n.69, who is in doubt due to an injury to her right foot), Clara Burnel (n.80) and Kristina Mladenovic (n . 100).
"We communicate the opening of the Isola dello Sport season to Sardinia and the world with this great tennis event - underlined the councilor Chessa - which will give an image of international significance: in a period of pandemic Sardinia has captured many events and the attention of the media worldwide and this makes us understand that the investments we have made in recent years are bearing the hoped-for results ".
"From the national reports drawn up a month ago - continued the exponent of the Giunta Solinas - the indicators highlighted that both in 2020 and in 2021 Sardinia had the greatest tourist growth compared to the rest of Italy, thanks to to a long series of sporting events that we have created: an apt trend, the sporting one, which had never been followed and which is bringing us many appearances ".
"The numbers bode well - according to the regional tourism policy manager - Cagliari alone with 91 destinations and 18 thousand flights could generate about 4 million possible seats; to these are added the passengers of the Alghero and Olbia airports as well as the docks. in ports ".
"As I always say - explained Chessa - beyond the sea, not only sea and not just sport: various forms of integrated tourism drive the seasonal adjustment and lengthening of the season throughout the year, not only in the canonical summer months".
"Last year - concluded the Councilor - thanks to sport we extended the season by two and a half months: one of my goals is to rotate the billboard of sporting events throughout Sardinia and make known, thanks to sport, the whole island and especially the interior ".
LP
