Great success for Miriam Carnovale, the athlete from Vibo Valentia born in 2005, capable of climbing to the highest step of the podium at the Italian Second Category Table Tennis Championships. An incredible success that rewards the sacrifices made by Miriam in recent years, always guided, albeit from afar, by her parents Caterina and Antonio who never let her lack confidence and always encouraged her to do her best.
At the “Giosuè Poli” sports hall in Molfetta Miriam Carnovale (Muravera Tennistavolo) won her first Italian singles title, scoring in the second category, after second place in 2021 and third place in 2022 and 2023. She beat her in the final by 3-2 (13-11, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8) Arianna Barani (Quattro Mori Cagliari).
Carnovale recovered from 3-5 to 5-5 and from 6-8 to 8-8, did not take advantage of the first two set points (10-9 and 11-10) and was right in the third (12-11) . In the second set she again scored four consecutive points from 7-9.
When play resumed, Barani regained the lead (5-3) and from 5-4 she extended to 7-4 and obtained five set points (10-5), taking advantage of the second. In the fourth quarter she rose from 5-5 to 7-5, was reached (7-7) and from 8-8 she raised herself to two set-points (10-8), achieving the second. The “bella” was a point-to-point fight and at 8-8 Carnovale won the last three exchanges.
Joint bronze medal for Candela Sanchi (Tennistavolo Torino), who lost 3-1 (5-11, 11-6, 7-11, 7-11) to Carnovale in the semifinal, and for Wang Xuelan (Tennistavolo Marco Polo), who lost 3-1 (11-3, 8-11, 10-12, 5-11) against Barani.
When they entered the draw Carnovale had prevailed 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 13-11) over Caterina Angeli (CIATT Prato), while Barani had started from the round of 16 and prevailed by 3 -0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-7) over Elisa Armanini (Tennistavolo Torino) and 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9) over Giulia Cavalli (Muravera Tennistavolo), her partner in yesterday's doubles victory.
«For me – comments Carnovale – it was an immense joy, especially given how the tournament was going. It was very tough from the first match, in each one I had to fight and only in the first match of the group did I prevail 3-0. Even when in the final I found myself at 2-0 I knew it would be very long and at 2-2 I saw some ghosts and I feared I wouldn't be able to take it home. However, I was clear and managed to play as I should have from a tactical point of view and this aspect rewarded me in the end. Against Arianna I didn't enter the field as the favourite, this year we had already played four-five times and I only won once in the A1 league. Her game bothers me and I was good at cageing her well with the serve and return on the table and this meant that even the open game led me to win more points than usual. I'm happy I was able to find the right key. At 2-0 I felt a bit of pressure not to be able to close out the match, because I was very close to the title. I was a bit afraid of winning, but in the end I freed myself and thought more about how I should play than what would happen next. It went well and I'm really happy.”