The Italian Fabio Fognini, former world number 9 eliminated by the British Jacob Fearnley as soon as he entered, played his last Masters 1000 in Rome at 37 and will put an end to his career at the end of the season, he announced on Thursday.
“Thank you Rome, it was a very nice trip, it’s over here, I have not yet retired, I will play until the end of the year”he said after his defeat 6-2, 6-3. “As with everything, there is a start, there is an end”continued the Italian, who shares the life of the former player Flavia Pennetta, victorious of the US open in 2015.
“I think you can remember me as a guy who did things with passion, who sometimes, even a lot, deceived but who has always apologized”estimated Fognini, known as much for his genius and blood blows on the courts. Fognini, now 107th in the world, has won nine titles in his career, including the Masters 1000 by Monte Carlo in 2019.
His best result in Rome is his quarter-final reached in 2018. The previous year, he had beaten the Scottish Ecossais Andy Murray on the world clay, then a world, “one of the three strongest moments in my career,” he said. Before the hatching of the Berrettini, Sinner and Musetti, he had given back colors to Italian tennis by becoming in Roland-Garros in 2011 the first Italian to reach a quarter of the final of a Grand Chelem tournament since 1998.
In 2014, he also led Italy to the semi-final of the Davis Cup, where she had undergone the law of Switzerland of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. However, he did not participate in the victorious campaigns of 2023 and 2024. “The Davis Cup, it represented everything for me, but I will always have this open injury”he regretted.
