Marco Cecchinato, the Budapest winner who defeated Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals and will fight for the final against Dominic Thiem on Friday, will be one of the Italians’ favourites at the French Open 2018.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
The change of shifts at a Grand Slam tournament does not only affect the players. The retirees of the first week will leave there, the juniors will follow. The situation in the press centre is similar: after Kei Nishikori’s defeat, the Japanese Armada is slowly packing its bags, while another phalanx is currently being rebuilt: the Italian one.
And unlike their Asian colleagues, the Azzurri don’t hold back with their enthusiasm, even after Matteo Berrettini’s bankruptcy against Dominic Thiem at the Austrian’s press conference to praise the loser.
But how they celebrate their winners first! First and foremost Marco Cecchinato, who kicked Novak Djokovic out of the tournament on Tuesday and reached the semi-finals of the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. His first, of course. The 25-year-old has already made a few premieres in Paris, such as his first ever victory with a major. And this in front of the eyes of numerous fans from Italy, who already dominated Court 1 at Berrettini’s match against Thiem.
Cecchinato has crowned his previous performances with the coup against Djokovic after his success against David Goffin in the round of 16. He lost to the Belgian at his home tournament in Rome in round two (he proved that Cecchinato can play tennis very competently against Pablo Cuevas in the round before). Against Djokovic in the fourth set he made an unlikely comeback, winning the decisive tiebreak with 13:11.
German tennis fans have already seen Cecchinato this year in Munich, immediately after the Italian’s biggest career success: the week before, Cecchinato had won the title in Budapest as Lucky Loser.
In Munich, Cecchinato defeated a listless Fabio Fognini in round one, while in Paris the Italian number one was much more joyful. At some point, however, the time of truth comes for the majors, as so often in the past twelve months, this truth bears the name Marin Cilic. This was also the case for Fognini, who managed to catch up 2-0 against the Croatian, but still had to pack his bags in the round of 16.
Fognini is history, at least in this tournament. The present is Marco Cecchinato, who also enjoys his success in the press conferences after his matches to the fullest. The 25-year-old will only be narrow-lipped on one topic: in 2016 he was suspected of having manipulated matches, the proceedings were discontinued due to a formal error by the Italian Tennis Federation. Cecchinato ironed away demands to the case, not rude, but determined.
An interesting side aspect of Marco Cecchinato’s successful run: The Italian will probably be seeded at the upcoming Wimbledon tournament, subject to the decision of the organisers there, who will adapt their seed list to the turf performances of recent years. Cecchinato himself knows that he is no expert on grass, as a precautionary measure he congratulated the man he has to play in round one at Wimbledon on his excellent draw.
The memories of his upcoming opponent Dominic Thiem are selective: Cecchinato recalled that he had defeated the Austrian in the final of a Futures 2013. The defeat in qualifying for Doha at the beginning of 2014, however, was suppressed.