Marco Cecchinato, possible revelation at Roland Garros 2023

There are cases that seem to escape logic in the world of tennis, stories that are difficult to repeat and that reveal the magic of this unpredictable sport. Marco Cecchinato He embodies one of those difficult-to-decipher enigmas, that of a tremendously talented player with a precious game with a meteoric irruption and a prolonged hangover of success, victims of injuries, mental fatigue and difficulty assuming the new role. A game marked his career forever, but the Italian strives to turn the page and look to the future, eager to reconcile with a sport that has given him too much trouble after having caressed glory. At 30 years old and with a wide baggage of experiences in his backpack, he seeks to be protagonists in big events and show that what he did in Roland Garros 2018 it was not an isolated event. Talk about all this with break point and leaves interesting headlines.

Reviewing his career, it is striking to see that Marco has not been able to win a Grand Slam match beyond those memorable semifinals in Paris five years ago, leaving Carreño, Goffin and, of course, behind on the way. Novak Djokovic, before being defeated by Thiem. Blessed with the gift of sheer talent and a prodigious hand, the man from Palermo feels comfortable on clay, where he can weave a delicate web based on changes in height, speed, spin, tactical intelligence and an innate ability for the left.

Champion in Umag and Budapest in 2018, and in Buenos Aires in 2019, everything he had built, becoming 16th in the world, collapsed like a house of cards in that fateful 2019, in which he chained a set of 12 defeats in 13 games. He went from finishing 2018 ranked 20th to 71st in 2019. Things have changed this year, as he himself admits. Injuries, inconsistency in training and difficulty to perform continuously given the evolution of tennis towards higher speeds can explain the drift of a Cecchinato who understands the profession much better now, having reached a level of maturity with which he trusts to recover his best level. .

He did not have a good South American tour, but in Estoril everything changed, and he has made a notable approach to Roland Garros 2023, where he will be one of the “coconuts” for the first rounds. He has been able to beat tennis players like Schwartzman, Fognini, Davidovich, Fucsovics, Bautista or Shelton, although later it has been difficult for him to maintain this level and deepen in tournaments as one would expect. Even so, he has already entered 73 of the world and treasures the necessary confidence to be a latent threat in Paris and, why not, dream of repeating something similar to what he already achieved five years ago.

You come in very good dynamics after what you achieved in Estoril, where you were seen playing at a high level again. What goals do you set for yourself after seeing that you are capable of beating important players?

Well, the truth is that I felt very comfortable that week and I was able to get the sensations that I had been looking for for a long time. The bad thing is that I injured my abdominal a bit and had to give up competing in Monte Carlo and Banja Luka. That makes it not easy to recover the level, right now the circuit does not wait and if you stop training for a few days, everything is uphill. I was able to get through the qualifying phase in Madrid, winning hard games, and the truth is that it is essential for me to compete regularly and gain rhythm and confidence.

Every time we see you put together good matches and add victories, it is impossible not to think about what you did at Roland Garros 2018. That victory against Djokovic and that tournament in general, has it been more of a source of motivation for you knowing that you are capable of of achieving something so big, or added pressure when you see that you are having a hard time recovering that level of play and that everyone reminds you of it?

Let’s see, it’s been a long time since that. Really, after beating Djokovic in Paris, I was champion in two ATP tournaments, I became number 16 in the world and everything I experienced was very positive. But now I’m at another stage, I need to play games and I can’t constantly think about it because it could end up being an obstacle.

In recent years, we have seen how it is increasingly common for players who have already reached the age of 30 to reach the best level of their sports careers. I would like to know what are the factors that you think influence this and if you think you can achieve it too.

I think that the experience that years in the circuit give you is very important. You learn to handle situations, to interpret matches, to regulate efforts. I come from two very difficult years, fighting not to get out of the top-100, having to compete in Challenger events… That is difficult to accept when you have been competing in the best tournaments in the world for a long time, but now I feel the joy of play tennis and see myself with possibilities of being in big tournaments. The key is to trust yourself but, above all, train a lot. I had a few years in which I did not train enough and that takes a toll on you in a circuit as demanding as the current one, full of young people who hit the ball hard and who always want to win. If you want to be in the top-50, which is what I would like, you need to stay on top all year.