Sparring Partners Marcos Chan, Rocco Mariani, and Facundo Grasso Living the Dream at the Córdoba Open 2024

Marcos Chan, Rocco Mariani and Facundo Grasso are 18 years old and are living this week of the Córdoba Open as “if they were at Disney.” The first is Ecuadorian and the other two are from Cordoba. The three are sparring partners and are going through these days as their references: the tennis players competing in the sixth edition of the ATP 250 that opens the South American tour on clay. They share training sessions, a dining room, a gym and proudly display their credentials that accredit them as “players.”

Marcos arrived from Guayaquil and, after his first time in a tournament of this category, admitted to La Voz that “the experience is very nice.” “Coming from another country and being able to play here with the best in the world is very good; grateful more than all for the opportunity they gave me to be able to enter,” confessed the player who earned his place after good performances in national or regional tournaments. “I did very well and I think that was one of the reasons why they called me to participate,” he added.

Facundo Grasso also has an experience of this type for the first time. The player, winner of the La Voz Stimulus Award in 2023, trains in Villa María and is excited about being “on the other side” in the coming years, taking his place as player of the tournament. “It is a very nice experience to share the field, the locker room, to be there with the players,” said “Facu” and assured that “it was a special opportunity and a lot of learning.”

Rocco, who left his native Pilar a few years ago to settle in Córdoba and train at the Facundo Arguello Academy, is the most experienced of the three in this type of role. This is his third year as a sparring partner at the Córdoba Open, but he admitted that he always approaches it with the same expectation and trying to continue adding experience. “Always trying to absorb what the players have to tell us,” he said.

And he continued: “For us, these players are references so being able to incorporate their routines is very good. How they train on their days off (when they don’t have a match), the gym, physio or bike. They are very professional, they are always working hard trying to be 100% focused on the tournament.”

From left to right, Rocco Mariani, Facundo Grasso and Marcos Chan, sparring partners at the Córdoba Open 2024. (La Voz)

“Everyone has very different tennis,” Chan said and stated that everyone has the same rhythm and puts intensity into it. “I was talking about that with Thiago (Tirante) and Darderi (Luciano), in these tournaments, from the top 100 on down everyone has the same rhythm. They do not fail, they seek not to fail, to have minimal errors. That is why sharing with them has helped me a lot, they transfer many things to me,” he added.

All the tennis players he had to work with during the week managed to surprise Grasso. “I really liked the intensity that ‘Facu’ Díaz Acosta has. The truth is that all the players have a very high intensity, they miss very few balls and that is also what makes them among the best in the world,” explained the man from Córdoba.

And Rocco closed by telling his experience: “Yesterday (Wednesday) I spent a lot of time with Roberto Carballés Baena and he surprised me a lot. The Spanish got along very well with me and my ‘teacher’ and we talked a lot. It is a long road and we must continue with humility and always working forward.”

The three of them live a dream week, an experience that they will hardly forget and that will help them face whatever the future holds for them as tennis players. Who says not to return to the ATP 250 soon, but as ATP level players.

2024-02-08 20:28:13
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