Marcelo Ingaramo, the Cordovan tennis player who played for Davis in the 80s, won a senior tournament in the most unusual way.

Tennis week ended this Sunday -and that was Novak Djokovic as the main star in the Rome Masters 1000– left a joy for Argentina in the ITF Senior circuit. since Cordovan Marcelo Ingaramoa former professional tennis player who occupied the 67th step of the ATP ranking, was crowned champion of ITF Seniors World Individual Championships in the over 60 years category, held in Palm Beach, United States.

Born in Villa María and her rival, the Australian Glenn Busby (65 years old and one of the event’s favorites), starred in an unprecedented final for the racket world, which ended with the crowning of two champions. Because when the third set was tied at 3-3, a threat of an electric storm pushed the game to be suspended and the heavy rain that began to pour down shortly after the two players reached, in organizational agreement, to end the battle and share. The title

“We finished the final and we didn’t finish. I lost the first set 6-0, I lost the second 1-3 and I won 6-3; in the third I lost 1-3 and it was equal to 3. A mermaid just rang, which is an alarm for electrical storms. We had to stop and then it started to rain. It was raining hard, and they offered us to wait three hours to continue playing. In the end, it could not continue and we finished this, ”Ingaramo said The newspaperFrom Cordoba.

“We shook hands and we both won. The truth is it is very hard to wait 3 or 4 hours, cool down and restart. The adventure of the tournament is over, I really enjoyed it and I liked it ”, added who lived a good week in his first participation in a contest at such a level.

Busby, on the other hand, is a regular name on the ITF “veterans” circuit, which began playing in 2006 and where he has won three trophies this year, including one on Sunday. Furthermore, the Australian is in the top 40 with over 60 rankings and leads the world with over 65 rankings.

Ingaramo, who will turn 60 in October, made his professional debut in 1982 and played in his last tournament, a Challenger in Campinasin June 1994. Throughout his career he won three titles on that circuit, the second most important in men’s tennis: Birmingham in 1991, Santiago de Chile in 1992 and Campinas in 1993.

In July 1985, he entered the top 100 for the first time (appearing 76th on the 22nd of that month) and remained in that group for an entire season, reaching his best position, 67th place. , in February 1986.

He has played in three of four Grand Slams, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. His best performance at that level of tournaments was in New York in 1988, when, 104th place in the world, he beat Horacio de la Pena (66 °) and South Africa Andrew Burrow (355th) and reached the third round, where he lost to the Australian Darren Cahillthen 33rd in the world.

Cordovan also enjoyed beating Guillermo Vilas, Argentina’s best tennis player of all time, at the same time he tackled him as a professional. The first victory was in the second round of Barcelona in 1984, when he defeated, 188th in the ranking, Mar del Plata, 19th, 6-3 and 6-2.

The following year, they met again in the quarterfinals of Washington. Ingaramo, 122nd in the classification, won 6-1 and 6-4 against the great willy37th, and reached the semis, where he lost Martin Jaite.

Nearly three decades after “hanging the racket”, he became the first Argentine to claim championship at the ITF Seniors World Individual Championships. That tournament was one of the biggest events on the ITF Seniors Tour.

This circuit gives players 30 years of age or older the opportunity to continue playing competitively after retirement, with events in different parts of the world throughout the season -as is the case with ATP. Tour-, which takes different categories, from over 30 to over 85 years.