the character
The book on Bepi Zambon was missing. For some inexplicable reason no one had yet thought of telling the life, rackets and miracles of a true phenomenon of the tennis of yesteryear, that of “white gestures” to say it to Gianni Clerici, a sport that still preferred elegance to violence, style to power. Our colleague Prando Prandi, specialist in sports stories and today general secretary of the Union of Veterans of Sport, took care of it, to summarize in the 160 pages of “Bepi … beyond the network” (Duck Edizioni, 18 euros, will be presented on Friday at 6 pm in Ca ‘dei Carraresi) over 70 years of a character dear to everyone, who lived the glory and the fall, the fame and the oblivion, the notoriety and the humiliations (for a while he even lived in a caravan). He remains a cheerful Gascon, Bepi: when you talk to us, you never leave him behind for the sympathy of that now grizzled sparrow hawk mustache and the unmistakable laugh. Dozens of anecdotes, adventures, feats on and off the red earth, gathered in a very enjoyable story, which starts from the chapter “Vien nella ceo a tor su e baete” (so said the custodian of the Circolo Villa Margherita on 17-4-1954 at that child who watched the partners play secretly) and ends with Mettiamo una Crocetta (del Montello), where Bepi today teaches tennis to children. The final compendium of the dedications of the many friends that Zambon keeps throughout Italy is also beautiful. Book full of photos, episodes, moments of a life dedicated to tennis, without ever paying too much attention to the identity card (to see who would give it 78 years?) Which makes those who see its owner still full of energy incredulous , in the oceanic tennis levers that are his life. Or when he grabs his racquet for a few matches. The volume narrates his experiences in Treviso, with the painful management of the Park Tennis first and then of the Tennis Zambon, to try to get back which he did not hesitate to publicly chained. These were his poles, his home, where many tournaments were held that saw great champions clash in Treviso, as when he organized the now legendary match between Borg and Panatta in front of the 6,700 of Palaverde (and 2,000 outside) . Zambon was able to leave a mark on the fields of the Marca and in the hearts of his many friends, until his recent return, this year to Ascoli, his second home, to coordinate yet another club and to demonstrate that sport remains the way better to keep old age beyond the network. –
Silvano Focarelli