Taking advantage of his presence at the Challenger de Les Franqueses we have been able to interview Marco Trungelliti. The Argentine tennis player is one of those who always speaks clearly, of whom nothing is kept and has spoken openly about the problems that currently exist on the circuit.
tournament draw
tournament results
is a real specialist of the previous phases of Grand Slam since he is the tennis player who has overcome them the most times in a total of 9 occasions. For him the key is the whole atmosphere that surrounds this type of tournament and that the economic motivation of these appointments is very important. Despite having overcome so many, he considers that many times they were heads or tails and without being physically prepared.
Right now he lives in Andorra with his wife and their newborn son since he really likes the tranquility of living outside the big cities. There he regularly trains with Munar, Pedro Martinez, Carballés with whom he has created a great group.
Trungelliti also hasn’t been shy about telling us about all the troubles that surrounded him after he denounce match-buying at Challenger level.
Which Is your relationship with Argentine tennis players?
With some I get along well and with others everything was very marked by what happened. What I’m losing certain relationships because I never go. I’m not interested in going and the last thing I want is to get on a plane and go play in a place where I still feel very uncomfortable about the whole situation. I don’t think I have received the support that corresponds to me. They have been more supportive of others, which is quite paradoxical, but that’s the world we live in and we have to accept it. I don’t know if he will ever play in Argentina again because I don’t like it nor would I feel comfortable and I’m still not ready to remove many things that didn’t do me any good.
But is it not to remove or out of fear?
It’s more because I don’t want to waste time. I thought about it a lot, internally maybe I would like to return but I would need the environment to be more beneficial, less hostile because what we live with my family. There it was quite rough, ugly and it hurt a lot.
Do you think that what happened was just the tip of the iceberg and that there are many more hidden cases?
Clearly. It is quite obvious that there is a parallel system of corruption and that there are many organizations that are happy that it is there because that is how people who are playing ITF tournaments are kept. In Challengers more or less, but in ITF it is impossible to think that it is sustainable for you to leave a tournament earning €40. Despite this, people are still very happy and from time to time they sanction someone unknown so that it is said that they are working, but if they wanted to eradicate it they would have already done so. Right here in the club if you get distracted a bit and look you will see that there are some betting and doing these things that tell tennis players what not to do.
When you are on the court, have you noticed if any opposing tennis player has sold his match?
Sometimes it is very marked, but it is difficult to judge. It could also be that the other tennis player has had a fight with the wife and this has affected him. What there are are profiles of players who do it and what they have is that they say it to each other when they fix matches because they aren’t very intelligent either and it shows. But the thing is quite thin and as a rival you have no proof of what is happening and the organizations pass it through their ass. There are thousands of coaches that are involved, that everyone knows and continue to work with tennis players who are in the top 40, 50 of the world ranking. These are the coaches themselves who have been fixing games for 10-15 years and everyone knows it and it is impossible for them not to have proof of what is happening.
Then the bad guys in the movie are always the ones who present the complaints…
Yes, but because they are interested in keeping the person you denounced alive. The message that they left me with what happened is quite clear. Many players with whom I have spoken have told me that seeing what happened to me they are not going to report anything. And that is precisely what the organizations were looking for: that no one else denounce and thus the problems are over. The message was very clear. `If you are going to denounce we leave you absolutely alone and if they kill you tomorrow we don’t care’ and that is what is happening. We are in a monopoly where it is impossible for things to be done right.
Do you think if there was a top 100 involved they would take it out or hide it?
With the subject of the Argentines, some names came out, but halfway because one of the trident was released and there are injustices that exist. The problem is that they cannot put only one. They would have to bring in coaches and soon physios, physical trainers… It’s all a matter of the large amount of money that this world manages. The players are unprotected and you have to choose between earning €200 for winning a game or winning €15,000 by being what I consider corrupt. But there is no will to make tennis a sport that they say is clean when I can really assure you that it is not.
