Marco Cecchinato (; born 30 September 1992) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 16 reached on 25 February 2019. On 29 April 2018, he won his first ATP World Tour title at the 2018 Hungarian Open as a lucky loser, becoming the first Sicilian tennis player to win an ATP title. He has played 5 finals and won 3 ATP titles in singles. Cecchinato is a clay specialist, with his best Grand Slam result being a semifinal at the 2018 French Open. At the other Grand Slams, he has not won a match in singles.
Career 2013–2017: ATP and Grand Slam debut In May 2013, Cecchinato qualified for the main draw at the ATP tournament in Nice, losing to countryman and No. 6 seed, Fabio Fognini, in the first round.
In July 2014, Cecchinato qualified for Umag, where he played another countryman and No. 6 seed, Andreas Seppi, in the first round. Cecchinato lost the match in three sets.
Cecchinato then made his Grand Slam debut at the 2015 US Open.
On 20 July 2016, Cecchinato was suspended for 18 months (until January 2018) and fined €40,000 by the Italian tennis federation for illegal behavior including match fixing and match betting.Marco Cecchinato: Italian given 18-month ban for match-fixing The ban was overturned and declared a mistrial after the prosecutors took too long to complete the initial trial phase. Despite this, Cecchinato admitted to telling potential bettors of his poor physical state prior to a match.Marco Cecchinato Acquitted Of Match-Fixing
Cecchinato reached his first ATP quarterfinal at the 2016 Romanian Open.
2018: First two ATP titles, French Open semifinal, Top 20
In March, he played and won a Challenger tournament in Santiago, defeating former top 5 player Tommy Robredo en route.
He won his first ATP title in Budapest after reaching the final as a lucky loser, having lost in the qualifying competition; he thus became the ninth player ever to win an ATP tournament as lucky loser.
At the 2018 French Open, the 72nd-ranked Cecchinato came from two sets down to win his first Grand Slam match against Marius Copil. In the second round, he defeated lucky loser Marco Trungelliti. In the third round, he came from a set down to topple 10th seed Pablo Carreño Busta. In the fourth round, he beat 8th seed Belgian David Goffin in four sets. He then upset former champion Novak Djokovic in four sets (with a 13–11 tiebreaker in the deciding set) to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal. His French Open run ended with a loss to Dominic Thiem. Cecchinato was the first unseeded men's singles semifinalist at the French Open since Gaël Monfils in 2008, the lowest-ranked man to reach the semifinals since Andrei Medvedev in 1999, and the first Italian man to reach a major singles semifinal since Corrado Barazzutti at the 1978 French Open. His semifinal finish moved him to 27th in the world and enabled him, for the first time in his career, to be seeded at a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon. Despite his first Grand Slam seeding, he lost in the first round in four sets against the young Australian Alex de Minaur.
Later in July, however, Cecchinato achieved his second career ATP title at the Croatia Open, defeating Guido Pella in the final. As a result, he attained a career-best ranking of 22nd in the world.
At the 2018 Shanghai Rolex Masters, the Italian defeated Gilles Simon and Chung Hyeon to reach the round of 16, where he fell to Novak Djokovic. As a result, he climbed to World No. 19 in the singles rankings on 15 October 2018.
2019: Third ATP title and career high singles ranking Cecchinato started his 2019 season in Doha where he reached the semifinals. That was his career best performance in a non-clay ATP tournament.
At the Australian Open, he lost to Filip Krajinović in the first round despite leading by two sets and having a match point in the fourth set. That was his third straight first round loss at a grand slam event.
During the Latin American clay court swing, Cecchinato won his third career ATP title at the Argentina Open, defeating Diego Schwartzman in the finals. Cecchinato didn't drop a set in the entire tournament, and lost just three games in a one-sided final. As a result, he also attained his career-best ranking of World No. 16 on 25 February 2019.
2020–2021: Fourth and fifth ATP finals In 2020 season, which was affected by COVID-19 pandemic, he managed to reach his fourth ATP final at the inaugural Forte Village Sardegna Open in October, where he lost in straight sets to Serbian Laslo Djere.
In May 2021, he reached his fifth final at the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open, losing to first time ATP winner Sebastian Korda.
2022: Out of top 200, Two Challenger titles, back to top 100
In May, he qualified and defeated former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem at the 2022 Geneva Open in the first round.
In July, at the 2022 Croatia Open Umag he reached the quarterfinals defeating Lorenzo Musetti before losing to Franco Agamenone.
He re-entered the top 100 at No. 98 on 17 October 2022 following two Challenger titles in October.
2023–2026: ATP semifinal, hiatus, back to ATP Tour He reached his first ATP semifinal since 2021 at the 2023 Estoril Open. At the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open he reached the second round defeating Márton Fucsovics. At the Italian Open he reached the third round defeating Mackenzie McDonald and 21st seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
Performance timelines
Singles Tournament201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026SRW–LGrand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAQ1Q21RQ1Q11R1R1R1RQ1Q1AQ10 / 50–5French OpenAAQ2Q31RQ3SF1R3R3R2R1RAAQ30 / 710–7WimbledonAAAAA1R1R1RNH1RA1RAAQ10 / 50–5US OpenAAQ21RAQ11R1R1R1RA1RAA0 / 60–6Win–loss0–00–00–00–10–20–15–30–42–32–41–20–30–00–00–00 / 2310–23ATP Masters 1000Indian Wells OpenAAAQ1AAA2RNHAQ1AAAA0 / 10–1Miami OpenAAAQ1AAA3RNHAAAAAA0 / 10–1Monte-Carlo MastersAAAA1RA2R3RNH2RQ1AAAA0 / 44–4Madrid OpenAAAAAAA1RNH1RA2RAAA0 / 31–3Italian OpenQ2Q21RQ11RA2R2R2RQ2A3RAAA0 / 65–6Canadian OpenAAAAAA1R1RNHAAAAA0 / 20–2Cincinnati OpenAAAQ1AA1R1RAAAAAA0 / 20–2Shanghai MastersAAAAAA3R1RNHAAA0 / 22–2Paris MastersAAAAAA1RA1RAAAAA0 / 20–2Win–loss0–00–00–10–00–20–04–63–81–21–20–03–20–00–00–00 / 2312–23National representationDavis CupAAAAQFAAAAAAAAA0 / 11–0Career statistics 201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026CareerTournaments01341052526132171500130Titles0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 00003 Finals0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 00005Overall win–loss0–00–10–30–43–101–523–2312–258–1316–214–711–150–00–078–127Year-end ranking4091631599018710920718099104200377231$5,084,948
ATP career finals Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam (0-0)ATP Masters 1000 (0-0)ATP 500 Series (0-0)ATP 250 Series (3–2)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (3–2)Finals by settingOutdoor (3–2)Indoor (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Hungarian Open, Hungary250 SeriesClay John Millman7–5, 6–4Win2–0Croatia Open, Croatia250 SeriesClay Guido Pella6–2, 7–6(7–4)Win3–0Argentina Open, Argentina250 SeriesClay Diego Schwartzman6–1, 6–2Loss3–1Forte Village Sardegna Open, Italy250 SeriesClay Laslo Đere6–7(3–7), 5–7Loss3–2Emilia-Romagna Open, Italy250 SeriesClay Sebastian Korda2–6, 4–6
Records These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis. TournamentYearRecord accomplishedPlayer tiedHungarian Open2018Winning an ATP tournament as lucky loserHeinz GunthardtBill ScanlonFrancisco ClavetChristian MiniussiSergiy StakhovskyRajeev RamLeonardo MayerAndrey RublevKwon Soon-woo
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals Singles: 27 (14–13) LegendATP Challenger (8–12)ITF Futures (6–1)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (14–12)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Croatia F3, UmagFuturesClay Andrej Martin6–3, 6–4Loss1–1Croatia F1, ZagrebFuturesHard (i) Damir Džumhur2–6, 5–7Win2–1Croatia F3, UmagFuturesClay Attila Balázs6–4, 6–2Win3–1Italy F17, ModenaFuturesClay Dominic Thiem6–3, 6–4Win4–1San Marino, San MarinoChallengerClay Filippo Volandri6–3, 6–4Loss4–2Sibiu, RomaniaChallengerClay Jaroslav Pospíšil6–4, 4–6, 1–6Win5–2Italy F6, Santa Margherita di PulaFuturesClay Dennis Novak6–4, 6–2Win6–2Italy F7, Santa Margherita di PulaFuturesClay Roberto Carballés Baena6–4, 6–1Loss6–3Mestre, ItalyChallengerClay Pablo Cuevas4–6, 6–2, 2–6Win7–3Turin, ItalyChallengerClay Kimmer Coppejans6–2, 6–3Loss7–4Genoa, ItalyChallengerClay Nicolás Almagro7–6(7–1), 1–6, 4–6Win8–4Milan, ItalyChallengerClay Laslo Đere6–2, 6–2Loss8–5Como, ItalyChallengerClay Kenny de Schepper6–2, 6–7(0–7), 5–7Win9–5Italy F5, Santa Margherita di PulaFuturesClay Andrea Basso6–4, 6–1Loss9–6Ostrava, Czech RepublicChallengerClay Stefano Travaglia2–6, 6–3, 4–6Win10–6Rome, ItalyChallengerClay Jozef Kovalík6–4, 6–4Loss10–7Todi, ItalyChallengerClay Federico Delbonis5–7, 1–6Loss10–8Como, ItalyChallengerClay Pedro Sousa6–1, 2–6, 4–6Win11–8Santiago, ChileChallengerClay Carlos Gómez-Herrera1–6, 6–1, 6–1Loss11–9Punta del Este, UruguayChallengerClay Thiago Monteiro6–7(3–7), 7–6(8–6), 5–7Loss11–10Lošinj, CroatiaChallengerClay Carlos Tabernerw/oWin12–10Lisbon, PortugalChallengerClay Luca Van Assche6–3, 6–3Win13–10Rio de Janeiro, BrazilChallengerClay Yannick Hanfmann4–6, 6–4, 6–3Win14–10Milan, ItalyChallengerClay Dino Prizmic6-2, 6–3Loss14–11Lima, PeruChallengerClay Mariano Navone4-6, 7–5, 4–6Loss14–12Kigali, RwandaChallengerClay Marco Trungelliti6-4, 0–6, 3–6Loss14–13Milan, ItalyChallengerClay Facundo Díaz Acosta7–6(7–0), 6–7(5–7), 6–7(5–7)
Doubles: 9 (6–3) LegendATP Challenger (3–1)ITF Futures (3–2)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (6–3)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Italy F4, RomeFuturesClay Francesco Aldi Leandro Migani Filip Prpic3–6, 6–3, [6–10]Win1–1Italy F17, SassuoloFuturesClay Francesco Aldi Filippo Leonardi Jacopo Marchegiani6–4, 6–3Win2–1Spain F27, XativaFuturesClay Francesco Aldi Enrique Lopez-Perez Ivan Arenas-Gualda6–4, 6–3Win3–1Serbia F8, Novi SadFuturesClay Matteo Civarolo Marko Begovic Jeremy Tweedt6–3, 6–1Loss3–2Todi, ItalyChallengerClay Alessio Di Mauro Martin Fischer Philipp Oswald3–6, 2–6Loss3–3Italy F17, ModenaFuturesClay Matteo Fago Omar Giacalone Daniele Giorgini6–4, 6–7(5–7), [7–10]Win4–3Biella, ItalyChallengerClay Matteo Viola Frank Moser Alexander Satschko7–5, 6–0Win5–3Barletta, ItalyChallengerClay Matteo Donati Marin Draganja Tomislav Draganja6–3, 6–4Win6–3Sibiu, RomaniaChallengerClay Matteo Donati Sander Gille Joran Vliegen6–3, 6–1
Wins over top 10 players He has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10. Season 2018 Total Wins 1 1
#PlayerRankEventSurfaceScore20181. David Goffin9French Open, FranceClay4R7–5, 4–6, 6–0, 6–372
See also Italian players best ranking Best result of an Italian tennis player in Grand Slam
References
External links