Argentine tennis player Santiago Rodríguez Taverna’s big success: from selling shoes on Instagram to joining Roland Garros

Santiago Rodriguez Taverna, The 22-year-old Argentine tennis player is ranked 203rd in the world, making history on Thursday when he qualified for the main draw at Roland Garros, in his full debut in the “qualy” of a Grand Slam , to play his first Major tournament. He did so after defeating Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov (198th) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

In the previous two rounds he left Slovenian Filip Horansky (192nd) 4-6, 6-2 and 6-3 and Kazakh Timofey Skatov (188th) with a convincing 7-5 and 6-1 before to meet Kuzmanov, which he defeated. in 2 hours and 19 minutes. He will play his first main draw of the ATP tournament at Roland Garros, nothing else, nothing missing.

Rodríguez Taverna is the 11th Argentine to take the main draw spot in his first Grand Slam qualifier and the 8th to do so at Roland Garros. Something like this hasn’t happened since 2004, when Juan “Pico” Mónaco played the French Open and, after passing the first round, was eliminated by Guillermo Coria, a finalist in that historic edition along with Gastón Gaudio .

Santiago was born on July 16, 1999 in Pilar, he is 1.91 meters tall and weighs 82 kg. and it is forehand with backhand with two hands. They named him “El Duke”, a nickname he himself explained in an interview given on the site. “Daily Column” in May 2020:

“Since I was young, a coach, Willy Franco, gave me the Duke. That’s happening I liked to always be flawless in clothes, the hair several times with gel or wax. My friends and people around me use it, so I like it, ”he said.

His story is about a tennis fighter. By the end of 2014, unranked and nearly 15 years old, he had his first participation in a Future tournament. It was in Mendoza, where he fell in the second round against the Chilean Christian Garinwhich is 295 in the world.

The debut was lucky and she dreamed it would be the first kick in her going on big dates. However, the process took longer than expected and it was only in 2022 that he accessed his first main draw in an ATP tournament.

In between, a journey full of ups and downs. At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, he found his best version: he was champion of the M25 Punta del Este and the M15 Maldonado, both fought in Uruguay, but the pandemic suddenly cut off growth.

Since then, between economic hardship and a lack of motivation to train without knowing when he will be able to compete again, his future has become a real mystery. At the time, as expert journalist Marcos Zugasti described on his Twitter account, Rodriguez Taverna He started a shoe -selling adventure on Instagram and is about to retire.

However, soon after he was back on the tennis track. Its flight began in Zárate. Fearing to infect someone in his family during times of severe separation, he went to practice there with the aim of regaining motivation. And he achieved it.

He officially played again in Monastir, Tunisia, in May last year and in 2022 he regained his best version. the year began Tiger Challenger champion, his first title in an event in this category, after comfortably beating Facundo Díaz Acosta 6-4 and 6-2.

A few weeks later, he traveled to Santiago de Chile to play the first ATP 250 of his career. He lost the first round of qualifying to Nikola Milojevic, 125 in the world at the time. But now the time had come for the Duke. This Thursday the Roland Garros draw will be held and there he will meet his first rival on the big circuit.

Argentine at Roland Garros

Santiago Rodríguez Taverna will be the eighth Argentine in the main draw and the first to come from qualifying. Diego Schwartzman (16th in the world), Sebastián Báez (38th), Francisco Cerúndolo (44th), Federico Delbonis (62nd), Federico Coria (59th), Tomás Etcheverry (90th) and Facundo Bagnis (98 °).

Meanwhile, three other Argentines could join this Friday when the final round of qualifying is played. One of them is Marco Trungellitti (182nd), trained to play the preliminary stage in the Grand Slams, which will face Russian Andrey Kuznetsov (227th).

In addition, Cordovan Pedro Cachin (153 °) at Camilo Ugo Carabelli The (155th) will play against Russian Pavel Kotov (143rd) and Swiss Alexander Ritschard (204th), respectively.