Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in semifinals at Roland Garros: coup on the line

Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori qualified for the semifinals of Roland Garros, a tournament in which they were finalists in 2024.

The Italian doubles players struggled not a little against Petr Nouza and Neil Oberleitner (Czech the former, Austrian the other), winning in a comeback 6(7)-7, 6-1, 7-6(12). The match, which was extremely intense in the first and third sets, lasted a full two hours and forty-three minutes.

Bolelli and Vavassori could have closed the first fraction in their favor as well, but they squandered a set point during the tie-break at 6-5, then suffered a four-point-to-one split. Much easier was the second set, won by leaving the crumbs to the opponents, definitely more difficult the decisive fraction, in which the two pairs canceled each other two match points during the super tie-break, before the decisive 14-12 in favor of the Italian pair.

So the Paris dream of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori continues, as they seek their first success together in a Slam: Bolelli won the Australian Open in 2015, but then his doubles partner was Fabio Fognini, while Vavassori won in mixed doubles with Sara Errani last year in Paris and in the last two years at the US Open.

The same Vavassori, by the way, is still in the running for just such an encore in mixed doubles, again with Sara Errani. The two have reached the semifinals and are aiming for another prestigious result for themselves and for the entire Italian tennis movement, which despite the premature eliminations of Jannik Sinner and Jasmine Paolini really has many reasons to smile all the same, not only because of what is happening in the men’s singles.