Monte Carlo is his home. born 50 kilometers from here, in Arma di Taggia, since he was a boy he has dirty the soles of his shoes with the red dust of this blessed land. He also won it, the Country Club tournament, on an Easter day three years ago which, after a pandemic and a war in progress, seems two centuries away.
He is the only Italian to have won a Masters 1000 Fabio Fognini, and today they really applauded him at the central as if he were the enfant du pays, even if on the other side of the network there was a Frenchman, who was born in Provence, too. Arthur Rinderknech. A match against the grain, tiring and not beautiful, full of wind and a few too many mistakes that Fogna has been able to snatch in three sets (7-5 4-6 6-3).
Those who do not know it well, the Fogna, are deceived by the apparently sloppy gait, like a tired bandolero; from grimaces, from apparent indolence. But Fabio is really interested in winning here.
“It wasn’t a good match, I didn’t feel good on the pitch,” he says with a disheveled look at least as much as his hair. “I was unable to follow the plan I had studied. Then I didn’t know him, he has only recently been on the circuit, I knew that he can play well on the fast, but also on clay he gets along, even if he made a few more mistakes ».
Due to the baroque mechanism of the ATP ranking – further entangled by the two years of pandemic – at the end of the tournament the points of last year’s quarters and half of those of the 2019 victory expire. And tomorrow’s opponent is called Stefanos Tsitsipas, the number 5 of the world, the defending champion of the tournament. The real risk is to come out of the top 60 of the ranking. «But I have already said goodbye to those points – he smiles – With the new year we start from scratch. I had a bad month in America, I was not well, but now I’m almost fine, even if I can go up again. And I know that on this surface I can be a mangy dog for anyone… ». At 35, with three children (“Federico came for a ride here but immediately got a cold …”, he regrets from his father) and his wife Flavia Pennetta who after seven years is preparing to return to the field ( with Francesca Schiavone, for the tournament of legends in Paris), the temptation to give up could also appear. Especially with such a busy schedule that it takes a variety of injuries every week. “The rules are these, you know I disagree. The season ends very late, we should be able to rest more. It is no coincidence that the changing of the guard has now taken place, because there are young people; yet to win the tournaments are always the same … What would I want, from this 2022? Win a tournament. Between here and Paris I think I have the possibility, this is always my favorite surface. For two years I have cashed in the misfortune of the pandemic and ankle surgery. Now some ass – can you tell? – I think I deserve it … ». With all his defects, with all the bad days he has lived, we will miss him, the Sewer, when he decides to be a full-time dad.