Diego Forlan set for ATP Challenger debut in Uruguay: "I thought it was a joke"

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.

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.”