Italian Francesco Passaro has an interesting take on the ATP Challenger Tour.
“Sometimes I think it’s more difficult to play Challengers than the ATP (Tour), because we are more hungry to go up. I think it’s like university for us and then the ATP Tour is the job. We are trying to study to be ATP Tour ready,” said the World No. 128, who is now 27-12 at the Challenger level this year.
Passaro is one of six Italian #NextGenATP youngsters who have claimed a Challenger title in 2022. Luca Nardi, Flavio Cobolli, Matteo Arnaldi, Francesco Maestrelli, and Lorenzo Musetti have also triumphed this season. The fresh crop of Italian stars often travel to tournaments as a group.
With 20 Italians inside the Top 200 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Passaro believes his countrymen are feeding off each other’s success and benefitting from attention given to Italy’s highest-ranked ATP Tour stars, which has kept pressure off the country’s emerging talent.
“I think Jannik [Sinner], Matteo [Berrettini], and Lorenzo [Musetti] are doing well for us. They take all the pressure of the media and we can do our run easier without a lot of attention,” Passaro said.
“Me, Arnaldi, Nardi, [Giulio] Zeppieri, Cobolli, we like to stay together. We sometimes practise together, we have a lot of synergy. We went to the US Open qualifying all together.”
“We are lucky because we have a lot of tournaments in Italy. We have the ATP Finals, Next Gen Finals, Masters 1000 in Rome, 25 Challengers I think, and a lot of Futures. We have the opportunity to play all the weeks in Italy. We push everyone because maybe If I win a tournament, another guy says ‘Yeah, Francesco won the tournament, I can win too!’”
Passaro won his first ATP Challenger Tour main-draw match at the Sanremo Challenger in April, before making a run to the final (l. Rune) and marking his surge on to the Challenger Tour this season.
The 21-year-old has competed in five ATP Challenger Tour finals this season, including in Trieste, where he collected his maiden title. Passaro, who played mostly ITF Futures tournaments in 2021, has improved his ranking by nearly 500 spots in the past 12 months.
Francesco Passaro claimed his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Trieste, Italy. Credit: Citta di Trieste Challenger
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