WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is San Marino.

Top ATP player: Marco De Rossi
Rank: eq. #1362 (as of March 9, 2020)
Age: 22
Points: 3
Tournaments Played: 6

There is little known about San Marino as a tennis nation, though while many smaller nations do not have a representative in either the ATP or WTA Tours, the landlocked nation does have one. That registered player is 22-year-old Marco De Rossi, who is currently ranked equal 1362nd in the world with three points from six tournaments played, mostly touring in Europe across doubles and singles. His career high – which he recorded in September last year was 1197th – is within reach if he can notch up a few wins against opponents on the M15 circuit.

Dubbed ‘The Boy of San Marino’, as a member of the San Marino Tennis Academy, his debut came in his home nation of San Marino, where he as a 15-year-old won through the first round of qualifying 6-3 6-0 over Italian Enrico Becuzzi, before running into 19-year-old Marco Cecchinato and going down 6-0 6-0 in just 43 minutes. As history would show, Cecchinato went on to reach as high as 16th in the world just over 12 months ago.

Having not played in 2020 forcing his ranking to drop, he has most recently played in Cairo before he break, having to retire against 691st ranked Spaniard, Jose Federico Vidal Azorin after having a win over unranked Georgian, Zura Tkealadze in the Round of 32. It was a good win to come from a set down to win in three, which had come after back-to-back losses in Italy. He actually beat Egyptians Ahmed Mounir and Karim-Mohamed Maamoun on their home soil having played three tournaments in Cairo this year. The highest ranked player he has faced this year is 444th in the world. The highest player he has ever faced was back in 2016, when he lost to 349th ranked Roberto Ortega-Olmedo in the Round of 16 in Egypt.

Other notable San Marino players: Nil.

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Top WTA Tour player: Nil.

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Summary:

There is not much to report from the San Marino front, but it is always fascinating to discover players who might not be seasoned professionals and instead stick to local tournaments. De Rossi might be the only San Marino player, but given his young age, he could still play for a number of years yet and bring other youth players through the system could be a huge boost for the country’s future Davis Cup aspirations. Having already had plenty of experience in Egypt, expect De Rossi to feature heavily when the tour is back on and the tournaments roll around.