Ufficio Stampa Vero Volley

For Numia Vero Volley Milan it&#8217s time for the Scudetto Final. It starts Wednesday, April 16 at 8:30 p.m. (live coverage by Rai Sport, DAZN and VBTV) at Palaverde in Conegliano. The meneghine take on Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano in Game 1, in a best-of-five series. The second act is scheduled for Saturday, April 19, at 4 p.m. at the Unipol Forum in Assago, which promises to be fiery already.

The Numia arrives at the Final with great confidence, strengthened by the clear successes achieved in the playoffs against Vallefoglia in the quarters and Scandicci in the semifinals, both overcome with authority. A brilliant path that allowed Coach Lavarini’s boys to hit the qualification to the last act for the third time in the last four participations. On the other side of the net, the Conegliano Panthers, defending champions, had to work harder to get the better of Novara, dragging the semifinal to Game 4.

This is the fifth meeting of the season between Milan and Conegliano, who have already faced each other in all major competitions: Championship, Supercup, Italian Cup and World Club Championship. For many Vero Volleyball players, it will be their first experience in a Scudetto Final: among them Cazaute, Pietrini, Konstantinidou, Kurtagic, Guidi, Smrek and the two frees Fukudome and Gelin.

The champions of Italy and Europe for this new season have further strengthened the roster, inserting Gabi (bronze medalist at the Paris Olympics), Zhu, Lukasik and the young opposite player promoted to the first team Adigwe in the setter’s department, Chirichella and Eckl in the center, and Japanese Seki at the setter’s position. Always confirmed is the diagonal made up of captain Wolosz and Haak, the three Olympic champions – De Gennaro, Lubian and Fahr – and setter Lanier with the second libero, Bardaro. Coach Santarelli sits on the bench.

Luciano Darderi restarts with a success at the Munich ATP 500. After his triumph at Marrakech, the ’azzurro also starts off on the right foot his adventure at the ‘BMW Open by Bitpanda’ defeating at the debut the lucky loser Christopher O’Connell, world number 87.

7-6 7-6 the score accrued in favor of the Italian tennis player after nearly two hours of play. In the first set it was the serve that dominated, with Darderi conceding only 3 break points, but all erased. At the tie-break, down 3-2, the Italian strung together a partial five points in a row with which he won the first partial.

Same script in the second set in which this time it was the Australian who erased the only two break points of the partial. In the tie-break the difference was still the Azure, who won five of the last six points.

Thanks to this victory Darderi thus flies to the round of 16 of the Bavarian tournament where he will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, number 48 in the ATP rankings.

Four race weekends, as many victories in the Sprints and three successes in the Sunday GPs, with the only blemish of retirement in Texas: l’Marc Marquez’s start to the season is a real statement of intent, and although there is so much to go before the end of the championship, the number 99 now seems to be launched very much towards a season as an absolute protagonist.

At the Ducati pits, the’enthusiasm is not lacking and even Gigi Dall’Igna, who rarely indulges in enthusiastic comments before finally getting a result, has no doubts about how Marquez is handling this adventure in the factory team: “It’ a show, he is proving the’importance of the pilot” are the words of the general manager of Ducati Corse gathered by ‘As’.

Marquez rode virtually the entire race at the Lusail circuit with the bike slightly damaged, after a contact with his brother Alex: “I was not worried – said Dall’Igna -, it seemed to me that he had the situation under control. When he started making one fast lap after another, he confirmed the’very good management of the race”.

Marc Marquez is in his second year with Ducati: after a first season in Team Gresini, riding the Desmosedici GP-23, he switched this year to the factory team, on the GP-25 with which he has already taken great satisfaction. At the moment the Catalan centaur is also winning the internal challenge with Pecco Bagnaia (third in the overall standings, 26 points behind), but the season is still very long.