L'ex calciatore Diego Forlan adesso si è dato al tennis e nell'ITF Masters Tour vince le partite con tanto di bagel.
Diego Forlan set for ATP Challenger debut in Uruguay: "I thought it was a joke"
ATPSunday, 03 November 2024 at 07:30
Legendary
footballer Diego Forlan explains his foray into tennis after meeting Ruud Van
Nistelrooy. The Uruguayan had a distinguished career, winning the Golden Ball
at the 2010 FIFA World Cup as the tournament's best player and scoring over 250
goals throughout his career.
The former
Manchester United player will make his official debut at the ATP Challenger
Uruguay Open, where he will compete in the doubles event alongside former
top-50 player Federico Coria at the end of the month.
From football legend to Challenger debut
Forlan has
previously competed in the ITF Masters circuit in the over-45 division,
reaching world No. 88 in doubles. This time, he will participate in his first
Challenger tournament and recalled his past encounter with ex-colleague Ruud
Van Nistelrooy, another legendary Manchester United scorer.
Uruguayan
Ignacio Carou, ranked world No. 335, organized the event after asking Forlan to
play professionally. “[Ignacio] was joking many times with me to play some
Futures,” Forlan told the ATP. “This year, I said to him, ‘No, I was on
holidays, I don’t want to play’. Then a couple of months after, he sent me a
picture of Federico Coria and said, ‘I have your partner for the Challenger in
Uruguay.’
“I thought
it was a joke and then he said, ‘He wants to play with you, I’m not joking!’”
added Diego Forlan.
The former
Uruguayan footballer recalled his meeting in 2003 with Ruud Van Nistelrooy,
where they played tennis during a pre-season. “We played a tie-break. It was
only me serving, so there were some double faults, giving some points to him.
But I managed to win.”
Forlan
isn’t the only footballer he has played tennis with; as a teenager, he
partnered with none other than Argentine Diego Maradona for a doubles match at
the same club where Forlan and Coria will team up. “Imagine for me, to have the
opportunity to be around [Maradona] and then the opportunity to play football
and tennis – it was unbelievable,” he said. “We played football and we played
doubles in tennis. We had a really good relationship. He was very
competitive. It was a nice game.”
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