Genaro Olivieri has achieved another triumph and is steadily advancing on the brick dust of Roland Garros

The fairy tale of Genaro Olivieri keep adding chapters Roland Garros. The 24-year-old Argentine, who hadn’t played a match on the world tennis circuit until this week, reached the third round of the second Grand Slam of the season after defeating the Italian Andrea Vavassori of 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-4 and 7-6 (3) in three hours and 19 minutes of action on the 13 court.

“I have to stop the ball and sleep on the pitch. I can’t believe it”he released with a grin from ear to ear and after celebrating by rolling his eyes to dedicate, once again, the victory to his father, Carlos, a former pelotari, who died during the pandemic.

Olivieri, a native of Bragado and from the same generation as Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomás Martín Etcheverry, it won’t be easy for his next presentation on the brick dust of the Bois de Boulogne. Sixth seeded Danish Holger Rune awaits him, who will also arrive rested after advancing without playing due to the withdrawal of Gael Monfils, who withdrew from the tournament after a sensational victory over Argentinean Sebastián Báez.

Against Vavassori, who like the Argentinian had passed the qualification, Olivieri had to find the necessary variations to neutralize his rival’s powerful serve. He started very well in the first set and got away with a hard-fought tie break, but in the second he suffered a quick break of serve and was caught off guard. However, aHe adjusted the dice and little by little put the Italian on the ropes and so he was able to close the game by a large margin.

“The match was very complicated. He played very high for me and made it very difficult for me. I had to start moving my legs and start hitting him. Because if I wasn’t always falling backwards. With that mobility, I also started to serve better. I started to vary more. The serve costs me a lot for my height (1.70). Technically it’s not bad, but I have to be calm and concentrated to serve,” said Olivieri without hiding any strengths or weaknesses at all. In the first round it took him five sets to eliminate the young Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who entered the main draw with a wild card.

And he continued with brutal sincerity: “I arrived with a margin to close the game. However, my hand always shakes a bit in closing. You know: your legs are shaking. Luckily I closed it well. I don’t even remember the last point”.

Far from being intimidated, Olivieri has full faith in what is to come without realizing that on the other side of the net there will be a top ten and one of the candidates to go far in Paris. “I saw that Rune was coming because Monfils went down. But it’s an extra game. It will be the first time I play in a stadium. But the field is the same size as all other fields. So you have to focus and move forward,” stressed the Argentine, who has already guaranteed a check for $154,103.

Genaro Olivieri, tennis and love for dad

Genaro Olivieri grew up admiring Rafael Nadal. The willpower of the Majorcan, his work ethic and his dedication, which have led him to be one of the best in history, are qualities that the Argentine tries to emulate every day. Perhaps for this – or perhaps for a sign of fate -, he was on the brick dust of Roland Garros, the same one on which his idol has built an incomparable kingdom, where the buenosareo lives his most important week in the most important tennis circuit male.​

Olivieri, 231st in the standings, is part of that new generation of talent led by Francisco Cerúndolo, 23rd in the world. Genaro took up tennis after a doctor advised his parents to take him to sports to combat his high cholesterol. It didn’t take long for him to stand out among the boys in his category and very quickly he earned the title of “Argentina’s great promise”.

In those early years, his passion for Nadal was born. He liked the Spanish so much that he even copied the look to take the field.

“I dressed like him. It was difficult because in Argentina you couldn’t get the long pants that I used to wear. So I bought Nike pants one size bigger, they fit longer on me and I hemmed them so they wouldn’t fall down and I could play comfortable. Everything to be more like Nadal. I also had muscular ones. And later, when he started playing with short sleeves, I switched to short sleeves. He was my idol and always will be. ‘is explanation for what he got from skinny, it’s impressive,” he said a few days ago in a chat with the BATennis.com website.

And, with a laugh, he added: “I was sad when I found out I wouldn’t be playing in Paris this year. What madness it would have been to play him here, madness! I would have played the whole game and cried.”

Olivieri was one of the best juniors of his litter. He won three titles (all in 2015) and reached the eighth step of the ITF world rankings in June 2016, the year in which he played four Grand Slams and sealed his best performance with the quarterfinals of Roland Garros.

It was also progress at the ATP level. Lui got his first point in August 2014 at Future in La Rioja. To measure his earliness, Fran Cerúndolo and Tomás Etcheverry – two who today are already entrenched among the best in the standings – did so two years later. And when Genaro entered the top 1,000 in December 2016, porteño was 1,930th and La Plata 1,756th.

His good performances attracted the attention of Daniel Orsanic, then director of development of the AAT and Argentine captain of the Davis Cup, who brought him as a sparring partner in the series that the albiceleste team, led by Juan Martín Del Potro, beat Italy through the quarter-finals, towards the unforgettable consecration.

During that duel in Pesaro, he told Clarín that he was very excited to make the leap into professionalism. “The most important moment of the race begins, the icing on the cake. But I’m not afraid, because I’ve been preparing all my life”, he said. But the transition cost him more than he expected.

He was progressing, but at a slower pace than other boys in his age group (would the size difference play a role?). Only in 2019 was he able to add his first titles on the (former) Future circuit. In his eighth final, he won an M15 in Buenos Aires in July, when he finished 649th. And in November, like the 481st, he celebrated in an M25 in Naples.

In April 2021, he suffered a major blow: His father, Carlos Olivieri, a renowned Argentine pelotari and the greatest promoter of his career, passed away. Genaro thought about leaving tennis, but he got back up and made a big leap in 2022.

In November he finally won his first Challenger, in Montevideo, with a tough victory in the final against Etcheverry, who was already 85th, and days later he appeared on the 190th step of the standings, his best position to date. The victory over Vavassori (148th) in the second round would allow him to knock down his ceiling and get closer to the goal of the top 100 that he had set for himself this year.

“My father supported me in every way, from a psychological point of view to a financial one, in the end he also knew about tennis… He pushed me a lot, he wanted me to play more than me. He was my career and life partner “When he died I didn’t want to play again, I had no motivation, but I came back and when I entered the field I had a sacred fire. Because I think somewhere he is watching me and enjoying himself.” he said after the victory over Mpetshi Perricard.

Olivieri -who won her third ITF title in Tucumán last February- had again enjoyed a court, but had one thing to settle: the ATP circuit. He had played qualifiers at Wimbledon and the US Open last year and the one in Australia in January, without being able to overcome them. Even the one in Houston, last April, again with no luck. But he arrived in Paris confident, won all three matches in the qualifying round – he lost just one set, in the third round against Adrian Andreev – and fulfilled his dream of entering the main draw of the French Major.

He wasn’t satisfied, on Tuesday he celebrated his first triumph at the top level of professional tennis on the brick dust of the Bois de Boulogne. And this Thursday he took another step. There, where his idol Nadal bathed in glory 14 times and with the strength his father sends him from heaven, Genaro Olivieri continues to lay bricks in his career. The Roland Garros dream has just begun and he doesn’t want to wake up.