Who is Mariano Navone, Sinner’s next opponent in Rome

The chat between Mariano and Marcos has become incandescent. It would be easier to meet in person, but Pandemia and Lockdown raged out there he represents the painful everyday life to all the corners of the globe. Also in Argentina, where Marcos (Zugasti, journalist) sent emails everywhere to find a sponsor to Mariano (Navone, a tennis player): the boy, 19 years just turned, promises well. The turning point arrives in March 2020, and the two comment on it on WhatsApp: “We give us six rackets, a bag, a backpack, three packs of 30 grips and three tubes of ink for the ropes. Mariano, it is not bad for a first contract!”. Navone breathes a sigh of relief: before he played a survival tennis, now Pregusta Slam and Masters 1000. The opponent with whom he will debut Sinner in Rome is a peer who has already lived several lives: he canceled the straight by re -tearing it from scratch, he became the king of the Challengers and in 2024 he put his name on a record and on the top of a ranking. It sends it … Scaloni, the coach of the Argentine national team from which he takes inspiration in the nickname and in the spirit. It is Mariano Navone, and with Italian tennis players he boasts very happy precedents.

Sacrifices

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The place of birth is not trivial by Mariano Navone. That yes, it is the usual puable Somewhere in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. But it’s called Nueve de Julio, 9 of July, like the date of Argentine independence. A few dozen thousands of souls, among whom he stands out, son of tennis players who grow up with the myth of Novak Djokovic (“For me the strongest ever”) and Nalbandian (“very special person and tennis player”). Family means are what I am, however: “At the beginning I rented an apartment with friends because I had no sponsors, and I traveled only thanks to the sacrifice of my parents. Once a boy who lived with me did not leave for a tournament because he said he had only ten euros in the wallet. Tennis, at those levels, is a matter of survival”. At least as long as Dunlop, a siege by his friend journalist Zugasti, is not convinced to release him the above supply. Among which stand out the six rackets with which Navone travels around Europe on hunting points.

The psychologist and Challenger

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The victories do not come immediately, help out of the field and one between lines and corridors. The first is the help of a psychologist with whom to drive back the fear of not making it and anxiety: excellent idea. The second is the choice to change the handle of the straight: June 2023, one of the first turning points of the career. Within a few months he wins five Challenger finals around the world. Under the Christmas tree, in the finished season, celebrate coming to discover that no one, during the year, managed to do better. The ranking, 365 days earlier, saw him at 239: this time he embarked in 2024 sitting on the number 120 armchair in the world. And he already has the lucidity to look back: they interview him and ask him: “What would you say to the Mariano that a few years ago he could not even guarantee a sponsor?”. Reply that falls abundantly in the ten lines of a third test to maturity: “I would tell him to remain calm. The beautiful things come”.

The climb

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In 2024, for him, they arrive of beautiful ones. As a good Argentine he studies to become giant of the red earth and surprises everyone at Rio’s ATP 500: he even starts from qualifying, surprises more than a specialist (the old chria, the very young Fonseca), jokes with Norrie and surrenders only in the final in Baez. In Buenos Aires the mania for Mariano bursts that immediately becomes the Navoneta, in assonance with the nickname of the seleccion of stairs who in three years wins a world championship and twice the Copa America: “The Navoneta is like the national team, they call me so because I have charisma as scaloni. But on my wagon there is fewer people, I am much less famous”. It does not make a turn. In the meantime, celebrate his successes (there is also a final in Bucharest) in the curve to cheer Argentinos Juniors, because ball and ball travel for him in the same direction: “Indeed, when I am in Europe I take me behind the VPN to look at the games in the hotel”. And he begins to give himself joys against the Italians: in Cagliari he wins a Challenger 175 in the final against Musetti, abandoning himself to the greatest joy of his career. Which would obviously surmount, of course, in the event of a victory against Sinner in the second round of the international. Where it entered the tip of feet and avoided voltage drops against an Italian, 2007 Cinà: double 6-3, performance with few smudges.

Red specialist

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What can Jannik from Navone expect? A solid field player Campo, loaded with spring by the idea of ​​being a favorite surface (one cannot say the same as Sinner) and accustomed to building points especially in response: in 2024 he took first place in front of very illustrious colleagues in an ATP official ranking. That of the game won in response on red, over 38% of those faced during the season. After all, last year he also put the signature on something else. On a sensational record: he made his absolute debut in a slam … as a seed. The tournament, easy to guess it, was Roland Garros. He had entered a whisker among the first 32, thanks to the victory in Cagliari against Musetti. The adventure in Paris lasted a couple of games, but he left his mark: “What a comfort, the majors. There are even the buffets! You can eat as much as you want, when you want. So everything is easier”. Survival tennis is a faded memory: now the Navoneta dreams of continuing navigation on the Tiber.