The title of João Fonseca at Phoenix Challenger on the 16th, he realified the increasingly promising future debate – and surrounded by expectations – that projects to the career of the 18 -year -old tennis player.
In the same week, about 400 km away from where the carioca added another trophy, another Brazilian with the most shooting in Indian Wells the best result of a career of almost two decades dedicated to the yellow ball.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, but raised on the coast of São Paulo, Fernando Romboli, 36, achieved in the Masters 1000 tournament in the United States, the best result of his career, which began in the mid-2000s. Next to Australian John-Patrick Smith, he reached the double semifinal.
With the result, Romboli made a 14 position leap and reached the 68th of the Doubles ranking of ATP (Association of Professional Tennisas), the best of his career. He is now Brazil’s fourth best dual -dual double, behind Marcelo Melo (26th), Rafael Matos (38th) and Orlando Luz (65th).
“It is the reward of a job I have been doing for years. I feel like I have been playing well for a long time and had been hitting the post. So it was superimportant to be able to perform and resulted in a tournament of this size,” RomBoli told RomBoli to Sheet.
Until then, he had the biggest achievement of UMG ATP 250 in Croatia in 2021, playing alongside Spanish David Vega Hernandez.
“These are years trying, with numerous situations where I was not lucky. But the merit was never lowering my head, always believing, knowing that it was on the way and that the reward would arrive,” he described.
Masters 1000 level tournaments are the second importance in the tennis hierarchy, behind only the four Grand Slams – Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open – and ahead of ATP 250 and 500, as well as Challengers.
Romboli says that the achievement has an even more special flavor for its trajectory in the week of the dispute. He recalls that his own participation in the tournament was not even confirmed hours before his debut. This is because, because there is not enough ranking to get straight to the main key, it was on a waiting list, waiting for dropouts.
On the first day of games, three pairs gave up, but the Brazilian could not take advantage of because he was still on the trip after playing the Challenger final of Corboda, Argentina, alongside Chilean Matis Soto – they stayed with the vice after losing to Polish Karol Drzewiecki and Piotr Matuszewski.
The Brazilian arrived in Indian Wells only on the second day of the tournament and used another withdrawal to, hours after landing at the airport, being confirmed on the key and already entering the court.
In the first round, Rombooli and Smith faced the favorite duo formed by the hosts Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, silver in Paris Games. They won by 2 sets 1, with partials of 6/4, 3/6 and 10/8 in the third set Tie-Break, after losing 7-3.
Then they passed the British Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, the fourth best duo this season, again 2-1 (6/4, 4/6 and 10/5). Near the end of the game, the Brazilian said he felt a calf injury, which made it difficult to move the court.
Even without being 100% physically, in the quarterfinals, managed to dispatch the duo formed by Indian Yuki Bhambri and Swedish Andre Goransson. The semifinal defeat against American Sebastian Korda and Australian Jordan Thompson came after a very disputed game, by 2 sets to 1, with 10 to 8 in Super Tie-Break.
“You can’t deny that the feeling was bitter, because we put ourselves in a position to win the game. But we need to have the maturity to see that there is much more positive than negative in the campaign,” said Rombooli.
The Brazilian also celebrates the feat conquered in Indian Wells’s rapid courts by the exhibition he won in the media and hopes that new sponsors are interested in exposing brands in their uniforms.
Currently, the duplist has the support of a sports equipment network and a clothing brand, but without fixed sponsorship. Travel spending to compete and workouts are benches from their own pockets.
“Such a result ends up drawing attention and opening doors so we can better develop our career,” says Romboli.
With few injuries over the years, he says retirement is not a theme on his radar. “Today, at 36, I feel a boy. I still have a lot of firewood to burn and hope to be able to keep playing at this level for a few more good years,” says the Brazilian.
