Marco Trungelliti: From death threats to French Open return

The last time Marco Trungelliti played in the main draw at Roland Garros involved a frantic drive from Barcelona to Paris after being called up as a late alternate. Despite a lack of preparation and sleep, the Argentinian won his first-round match in four sets against Bernard Tomic. That seemed destined to remain the highlight of a journeyman career but, while Jannik Sinner’s assault on the record books has dominated headlines in recent weeks, a small, heartwarming slice of history slipped underneath the radar.

At 36 years old, after reaching the final of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco, Trungelliti became the oldest man in the open era to reach their maiden ATP Tour-level final and break into the top 100 for the first time. Along with finally having a clean bill of health after grappling for survival for nearly two decades on tennis’s lower rungs, the turning point was a comically blunt conversation with his wife in February 2024.

“She put me under some pressure,” Trungelliti says with a laugh. “[She said] if you’re going to keep playing like this and being No230 or No240 in the world, then it’s maybe [time to retire] because we were always struggling with money. We have a kid, so things were getting more complicated in the sense that every time I was away from home, the reward wasn’t there.”

Trungelliti then headed to Rwanda for a pair of Challenger events and lost in the final of the first tournament. “Immediately afterwards I was finding excuses and my wife told me, ‘You’ve got to stop with this mediocre [attitude]. You have to stop thinking that way and be better,’ ” he says. “Sometimes it’s not healthy [to talk like that], but, for us, it was extremely healthy from the beginning and also we talk about facts. If you want to be away from home, you have to give 100 per cent and, if you lose, you have to be better than the day before. In the end, it paid off.”

Trungelliti won the second event, only the third Challenger title of his career, and four more since have helped propel him to No81 in the world, which comfortably secured his place in the main draw at Roland Garros, along with a minimum of £75,000 in prize money. A gilded twilight — he also made his debut in the Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome this season — after so many years of perseverance would be a fine achievement in itself, but it is all the more remarkable given the match-fixing investigation that nearly ruined Trungelliti’s career when in his prime.

In 2015, Trungelliti was contacted about what he thought was a potential sponsorship deal, but “after two minutes of the meeting, the guy told me straight away, ‘We need you to fix some matches and we’re going to give you some money here and there,’ ” he says. The figures ranged from a few thousand dollars to fix a match on the Futures circuit, up to six figures for one at an ATP Tour-level event.

Trungelliti reported the approach to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), which was replaced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency in 2021. He heard very little for more than two years until December 2017, when he was asked to waive his anonymity and testify.

“I was told they are going to trial against three Argentinian players and they needed me to show my face [to corroborate the allegations]. They told me if I refused, they would go against me, so it was very strange and I pretty much had no option. I know how people think in Argentina. It was going to be very tough. I thought that the TIU was going to be more active in the sense of taking care of me, as the guy who reported it, but instead it was the opposite. I felt completely used.” The TUI said in 2019 it had not commented publicly about his involvement in the case to protect him as a witness, and said “his courageous stand” was to be admired.

Nicolás Kicker (six years), Patricio Heras (five years), and Federico Coria (two months) were banned as a result of the investigation. Trungelliti was labelled a snitch by fellow players and was sent death threats on social media. After Coria’s father confronted Trungelliti’s wife in the players’ lounge at a tournament in Córdoba, they resolved to leave Argentina permanently and moved to Spain.

“I was a bit depressed at how the whole process went,” Trungelliti says. “It took me a minute to realise how bad [the threats were] and I talked with my wife and said, ‘I’m going to make it public because then at least if anything happens to me, there is a reason, otherwise it’s just getting worse and worse.’ The safety for myself and my family was just not there.”

Unfounded rumours spread that Trungelliti had been involved in the match-fixing ring himself, and that was the reason he had participated in the TIU’s investigation. “I can go to bed and sleep well but it was a waste of time and it was very, very dangerous and a very tough time for me,” he says. “I wasn’t enjoying playing tennis. I was very, very close to not playing any more.”

Trungelliti was ranked No123 at the end of 2018 but had fallen more than 100 places by the time Covid hit. It was only after he was forced to isolate for 21 days following a positive test that he came to terms with everything. “I had plenty of time to think and stop seeing myself as a victim. Since then, it was easier,” he says — even if his frustration with the ordeal is still palpable. “Players and coaches are fixing matches. They are still there. Nothing has changed. I thought it was going to be completely different but it’s already been ten years and it’s the same shit.”

Trungelliti describes the Futures circuit as a “jungle” or — less delicately — as “actually shit”, with the winner of bottom-rung M15 tournaments receiving only £1,600. But his form since 2024 has allowed him to escape that purgatory and Trungelliti, who has earned £170,000 this season, can now afford to bring his coach and physio to most big tournaments.

“I’m pretty sure one of the reasons I kept playing is because I could see myself getting better,” he says. “It could have happened before, but it could have never happened [at all]. I’m enjoying it, but the goal is not just to be here for two months and then be gone. I want to be in the top 50 and I think I can do it. Mentally, I’m there [in the right place]. While the willingness to get better is there, I’m going to keep playing.”

Click here to read article