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The final is Italy-Spain. Marco Cassetta and Giulia Sussarello will race for the European Games gold medal against the tournament’s number one seed Noa Canovas and Daniel Santigosa, who is also in the running in the men’s event with David Gala. And it will be a beautiful final, with the Spanish pair favorites and the Italians as protagonists of a tournament that has been outstanding so far in terms of performance, quality of play and defensive phase. “And now we have a gold dream”.

It is the perfect summary of an explosion of joy: Marco Cassetta and Giulia Sussarello, have just beaten in three sets (6/2, 4/6, 7/5 an hour and 35 minutes) the number 2 seed in the mixed padel at the European Games in Krakow, the Spaniards Araceli Maria Martinez and David Gala, a very strong pair with 17-year-old Gala considered the best ‘young’ talent of Iberian padel. And they did so by playing another great match, in quality and numbers, with 96 wins against 73 and 42% of points in reply against 26% for the Spaniards. At the end, emotion for the Italian clan and in particular for coach Marcela Ferrari, because playing tomorrow’s final – against the Spanish number one on the scoreboard Canovas-Santigosa who, as predicted, beat the French pair Pothier-Leygue in two sets 7/6 6/3 – was indeed a dream, but not so likely. Giulia Sussarello, at the end, could not speak for the emotion while Cassetta repeated to her: “Great, great Giulia, beautiful, beautiful!”. The attachment to the blue jersey of the two young players of team Italy was very strong: “Yes, because this is something unique and unrepeatable,” explained Giulia. “When you go wrong in a tournament you immediately think of making up for it the following week with the next tournament, but with the blue jersey it’s not like that, you don’t get second chances and you have to give it your all. Wearing it is beautiful and we are so keen on it”.

In the second semifinal, the French pair of Lucile Pothier and Thomas Leygue and the Spaniards Noa Canovas and Daniel Santigosa, one of the two ‘SuperPibes’ of Spanish padel together with 17-year-old Gala (with whom he is paired in the men’s), played a tight first set (43 wins vs. 32 for the Spaniards) and was closed in the tie break by the Spanish pair. In the second set, again great balance (31 vs. 22 winners) and at the end the Spanish pair embraced Juanjo Gutierrez, coach of Spain and icon of Iberian padel.

The final will therefore be Italy-Spain with Cassetta-Sussarello on one side and Santigosa-Canovas, the number ones, on the other. The match is scheduled tomorrow afternoon in Krakow’s beautiful Market Square.