Francesco Maestrelli - The next Italian takes off
With Francesco Maestrelli, another young Italian has shown up on the Challenger Tour. In the Azzurri's internal ranking of under-21s, however, Maestrelli is not even in the top five.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Jul 18, 2022, 04:46 pm
Not much has happened in the Race to Milan, the annual ranking of male tennis professionals aged 21 and under. Caros Alcaraz, last year's champion, is clearly in the lead - and will certainly not play in Milan again. But a few days later for the first time in Turin, where the ATP Finals of the entire tour take place. Jannik Sinner will also strive for the same thing, last November the South Tyrolean was allowed to play as a substitute. In the race, Sinner is in second place behind Alcaraz, with a respectable distance.
On the other hand, another Italian made a big leap: Francesco Maestrelli, 19 years old. Maestrelli, who defeated Sebastian Ofner in three sets in the semifinals of Verona's ATP Challenger on Saturday, followed suit in the final. And defeated the Argentinian Pedro Cachin 3: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 0.
Sinner made the transition
This success brought Maestrelli a jump of 15 places in the race, he is now number 14. But only the sixth best Italian! After Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti (4), Francesco Passaro (9), Flavio Cobolli (10) and Luca Nardi (12) are ahead of Francesco Maestrelli. Testimony of how good the youth work is in Italy. And how many tournaments there are where the youngsters can prove themselves and get ATP points.
The fact that victories in challengers cannot automatically be repeated one level higher is something Musetti has had to experience in the past few months. Only Jannik Sinner, who lost a two-set lead against Novak Djokovic in Wimbledon, was able to seamlessly continue his successes on the second level.