Fabio Fognini writes Italian tennis history
Fabio Fognini (ATP No. 36) set an Italian record with his opening win at the ATP Masters tournament in Indian Wells.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Mar 11, 2022, 07:04 pm
Fognini won his opening game against Pablo Andujar at the desert tournament in Indian Wells on Thursday, celebrating his 392nd match win on the tour. A record for an Italian player, he later learned .
Fognini overtook Adriano Panatta with 391 victories. Positioned behind: Andreas Seppi (386 victories), Corrado Barazzutti (317 victories) and Renzo Furlan (223 victories).
"I had no idea before the match," said Fognini. "These are just statistics, but of course I'm happy. Now I'm being compared to the greats. Adriano was an idol when I grew up." But Fognini announced: "It's not the end yet. I'll keep fighting and see what happens."
Berrettini, Sinner, Musetti: How long will the Fognini record last?
On Fognini can keep his "record" for a long time seems questionable: Italy has a number of promising young players up their sleeves. First and foremost Jannik Sinner at the age of 20 and after all 90 match wins. Or Lorenzo Musetti, also 20 years young, at 30. And not to forget: Matteo Berrettini, also only 25 years old and currently with 119 match wins on the tour.
The previous record holder for the Italian men, Adriano Panatta, has one big thing ahead of Fognini: namely a victory in a Grand Slam tournament. Panatta won the French Open in 1976 and was 4th in the world rankings in his heyday.
Fognini still has some catching up to do here: His best major result is a quarter-finals in Paris in 2011. However, he cracked the top ten in 2019, when he was 9th in the world.