Franco Agamenone was born in Rio Cuarto but represents Italy. Photo: Instagram.
The Italo-Argentine Franco Agamemone was excluded from the US Open after losing the qualifying match against the Swiss Alessandro Rischard, in three sets. But the peculiarity of the defeat of the native of Río Cuarto came through social networks and had to do with a situation that took place off the pitch.
Although the calendar calls for the United States Open to start on Monday 29, for all this week there has already been a legion of tennis players touring the fields of Flushing Meadows competing for the rankings, with the dream of entering the main draw of the last Grande Grand Slam of the Year
from this stage Federico Delbonis and Facundo Bagnis win, who in the first round will face the locals John Isner and Sebastian Korda respectively. But in this case, what remained at the gates of the race was Agamenone, 109 in the standings, who fell with Ritschard, 185 in the world standings, 6-2, 2-6 and 6-3.
“Today it was not possible, but I have a wonderful experience”, wrote Franco Instagramnext to an Argentine flag, in a first message in which he chose to save the positive part and continue in a season that saw him reach the semifinals in Umag, for example.
But social networks also showed another story unrelated to Cordovan, the product of a situation rarely seen in a context of this magnitude.
A Twitter user raised it as an injustice that during the match between Franco and the Swiss, who were playing “with all their hearts”, the “loud noise” of a concert was heard around the venue.
The video of one of the points of the match between Agamenone and Ritschard, published in Twitterwith ambient sound, it allows you to hear what appear to be some instruments in the background, disturbing the silence that usually surrounds the decisive matches of any competition of this sport.
According to reports from the networks, the noise became louder as the match progressed, especially at key moments in the match. “The third set was outrageous,” said one person on the scene.
The story of Agamemnon
Agamenone is from Rio de Janeiro, a fanatic fan of the River to the point of persecuting the songs of his fans on YouTube, a 100 percent football fan who reads phrases by Marcelo Bielsa and Marcelo Gallardo to motivate himself and a staunch defender of the consumption of mate and dulce de leche. So far, Argentina on the stick.
But for the ATP, Agamenone is Italian. How come?
In the resumption of tennis after the pandemic, he had no money left. A ten-month suspension for a doping control was also over who tested positive in a tournament in Pinamar. So by the middle of that 2020, he only had a handful of interclub matches in Italy to collect. But he found that there were cash prizes in that country’s national championship even though, to play, he had to take that nationality. And he did.
At the beginning of last year he had to make another strong decision: he left his home in Lecce and for four months he settled in Cairo (Egypt) and Monastir (Tunisia) where he played nine M15 tournaments, with only 15 thousand dollars in prize money. It went very well for him: he won three and reached two more finals. He added $ 10,134, which, with the discounts, has dropped to about $ 7,800. Until a year ago he played M25 tournaments but between August and September he won two challengers in Prague and Kyiv. And he began to see the light.
A month ago he reached the semifinals in Umag after beating Sebastián Báez and his “compatriot” Cecchinato, the same one who reached the semifinals of Roland Garros in 2018 and was top 20. Far from his time as a Futures player, he continues to write another chapter of its history, now with the tricolor flag next to the surname.
Source: Clarin
