by Simon Daish

Featuring on the Olympic stage in 2008 and 2012 Mihai Bobocica has been a long-standing fixture at the top-end of the Italian game and will be keen to further cement his spot as one of his country’s finest players with yet another strong campaign at the Italian National Championships.

Bobocica has his sights set on a whopping seventh Men’s Singles title at the nationals but will need to be at his best if he is to achieve that feat.

Last year’s champion Niagol Stoyanov is naturally the player to beat in Bolzano and is hunting down a milestone victory himself, hoping to emerge with his third singles trophy at the event.

Three further past winners are set to join the race with top seed Leonardo Mutti, Marco Rech Daldosso and Stefano Tomasi all eyeing up a return to the summit of the podium.

Competing in the Women’s Singles draw, Giorgia Piccolin will be looking to build upon her successful 2018 outing as she heads to Bolzano with the aim of taking home the title for the second year running.

However, a difficult line-up of potential challengers awaits Piccolin with Chiara Colantoni, Debora Vivarelli and Veronica Mosconi all seeded above her while last year’s runner-up Jamila Laurenti also features on the entry list.