Imagine growing up in the shadow of Roger Federer? Now, imagine growing up with Roger Federer and attempting to emulate his ever move?
For tennis nations such as Spain, Argentina and France, the talent pools remain so deep that there is enough success to go around.
However, when a player is attempting to advance to the higher echelons of world rankings, resides from the well kept but, power country of Switzerland—there is only one mark of excellence to compare oneself with—Mr. Federer.
Growing up with the current world No. 1, Marco Chiudinelli had the same aspirations as the 15-time Grand Slam champ.
Traveling to local tournaments together, sharing the same coaches and even playing soccer as a means of escaping the day-to-day grind of intensive training was shared between the two juniors.
Both aspiring pros wanted to reach the latter stages of Majors; both wanted to be No. 1 in the world.
Well, we all know how that story panned out.
Sadly, though, along the road to tennis' hierarchy, Chiudinelli was forced to live his dreams through his childhood friend. Seeing Federer capture 61 career titles (and counting), was not easy Chiudinelli, who spent the majority of his career in the Challenger circuit.
Suffering various knee and shoulder injuries over the last two seasons, Chiudinelli, who is the exact same age as Federer (28), found not only his tennis dreams dwindling, but his health as well.
Optimism was all but lost for Basel native, who completely fell off the Tour ranking system in March of 2008.
Entering the 2009 season with a ranking of No. 603, Chiudinelli's expectations of a successful season were put aside for the sheer pleasure of competing again.
While being back on Tour provided the forgotten locker room chatter and practice court conflicts, a funny thing began to happen, Chiudinelli started to win tennis matches.
Qualifying for his first Tour event of the year in Doha, Qatar, Chiudinelli made a modest first round exit to circuit warhorse Philipp Kohlschrieber.
Following his return to action in the Middle East, Chiudinelli gained further qualification into the Johannesburg and Dubai events.
Slowly but surely his ranking was making a rebound.
Representing his country in Davis Cup action (in the absence of Federer), Chiudinelli lost both his singles rubbers to Andy Roddick and James Blake.
Even though Chiudinelli was not successful in his Davis Cup campaign, the experience of playing two upper tier foes helped his preparation for the remainder of the season.
Chiudinelli's breakthrough of the year came in a little known Challenger in Tenerife, Spain. There, Chiudinelli defeated seven quality opponents (qualifying included), raising his ranking to No. 243.
Drawing inspiration from his Challenger victory in the Spanish suburb, Chiudinelli's next breakthrough occurred at the US Open. After qualifying for his fourth big league event of year, Chiudinelli advanced to third round action, losing a tight three set affair to Nikolay Davydenko.
The year, the struggle and the endless hour a training were beginning to pay off, Chiudinelli had cracked the top 100.
The Swiss' achievement in New York meant the right to partake in the qualifying draws during the fall circuit.
The fall season (for those of you who don't know) involves much more intimate draw settings than the rest of the season. Therefore, players taking part in the qualifying draws need to be ranked higher.
With the indoor season on deck, Chiudinelli qualified for three straight Tour events in Asia. Making the quarterfinals in Bangkok, the second round in Tokyo and the main draw in Shanghai, Chiudinelli's days of qualifying were finally left behind.
Gaining main draw acceptance into the Vienna tournament in Austria only paved the way for the highlight of his year to take place. Winning one previous main draw match in his home tournament of Basel, Chiudinelli was adamant on setting the record straight.
Being a former ballboy at the Davidoff Swiss Indoor Basel meant that a memorable performance for Chiudinelli would mean that much more.
Beginning his hometown campaign by exacting revenge on Germany's Kohlschrieber, Chiudinelli obtained the most impressive victory of his year by defeating Richard Gasquet in quarterfinals.
Advancing to the first semifinal of his career, the unheralded Swiss set up a first career meeting against his fellow childhood friend Federer.
The encounter would turn into much more than two former ballboys facing each other.
The competitive affair, won by Federer, saw Chiudinelli hold a set point in the opening set tiebreak.
Federer's good friend had now become a formidable foe—remember, Chiudinelli was ranked No. 603 at the beginning of the season.
The loss for Chiudinelli was taken in context: He may not have defeated arguably the greatest player of all time, but, if anything, for that one Saturday in his own backyard, he was seen as his equal.
Now that the season has come to an end for Chiudinelli, rumors of him recieving comeback player of the year honors have surfaced.
The current world No. 55 has locked up direct entry into the 2010 Australian Open and will now be looked upon as a legitimate No. 2 player for Swizterland's upcoming Davis Cup tie against Spain next year.
He may never win a Grand Slam event or be ranked amongst the world's best, but Chiudinelli, who stands at his career high rank, proved more than anything this season that hardwork personalized was worth every moment.
8 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete