There is a great deal of San Marino in the medal won by Italy at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto. The athlete who hung it around her neck was Giulia Dal Pozzo, 21, one of the rising stars of international padel, born in Borgo Maggiore and raised between Titano and Rimini.
Dal Pozzo won silver in mixed doubles alongside Marco Cassetta, at the end of a tournament that carried the Italian pair all the way to the final. In the last match, Portugal’s Pedro and Sofia Araujo came out on top 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, after a contest lasting roughly two hours. The Italians had managed to bring the match back into balance by winning the second set, before the Portuguese pair pulled decisively ahead in the third.
The silver carries particular weight given that padel was making its debut at the Mediterranean Games. Italy finished the competition with four medals, more than any other participating nation.
Before the final, Dal Pozzo and Cassetta had comfortably beaten France’s Dylan Guichard and Louise Bahurel in the semifinal, winning 6-4, 6-1.
But behind the Italian jersey worn today by the young player lies a story deeply tied to San Marino. Dal Pozzo was born on Titano on 15 February 2005 and holds dual citizenship. Her mother is Francesca Guardigli, regarded as the finest Sammarinese tennis player of all time, who reached number 448 in the WTA singles ranking and 234 in doubles. It was her mother who guided Giulia through her first steps in the world of racket sports.
Before padel, in fact, came tennis. Even at a very young age, Dal Pozzo was already being singled out as one of the talents of Sammarinese sport. In 2017 she won the Under-12 Coppa delle Viole, and the following year she claimed the Under-14 Tennis Europe tournament in Bludenz, Austria, in both singles and doubles. Also in 2018 she won the Italian Under-13 doubles title.
Then came a change of course. Tennis gradually gave way to padel, until she decided to commit fully to the new discipline. To compete internationally, Dal Pozzo chose to represent Italy, a possibility made available by her dual citizenship. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper AS, she explained that she is from San Marino but opted to compete for Italy partly because the padel scene on Titano remains much smaller.
It was a choice that quickly propelled her to the top. 2026 has been her breakout year. At the Rome Major, paired with Spain’s Nuria Rodríguez, Dal Pozzo became the first Italian to reach a semifinal at a Premier Padel Major. That run rapidly launched her toward the top of the world rankings.
Rome marked her true breakthrough, but the results kept coming in the weeks that followed: another semifinal in Valladolid and several strong finishes on the international circuit. On the eve of the Mediterranean Games she had climbed to 28th in the world rankings, having started the year far further down the list.
Now there is also a medal from the Mediterranean Games. It is silver, not gold, but once again it carries the name of Giulia Dal Pozzo onto the international stage. And behind the Italian jersey, that thread remains clearly visible — one that starts in Borgo Maggiore, runs through the courts where she grew up between San Marino and Romagna, and today leads to the biggest tournaments in world padel.
