Marco Cecchinato is not a name that many outside of Italy will yet be very familiar with. Yet the young Italian is beginning to make his presence felt in the game.
Ten years ago twenty-three would not have seemed young. But in today’s game where so many ageing stars are holding their own, Cecchinato represents a fresh face. With a career high ranking of 82 this week, he is looking to establish himself as a regular member of the Top 100.
His best surface is clay, where he has excelled on the Futures and Challengers Circuit. Each of his seven career titles, five in ITFs and two in Challengers have come on the red clay. His title win in Turin, where he defeated Kimmer Coppejans, is his only title on this calendar year. However, an incredible run of ten semi-finals, and a runner-up effort, all at clay challengers evidence his dominance of that level.
Cecchinato though, still has a lot of unanswered questions. He has never actually managed to win a match on the ATP World Tour proper, sometimes qualifying for main events but never quite breaking through. His record on any surface that is not clay makes for poor reading so far, struggling even in the early rounds of hardcourt challengers.
Though that makes for grim reading, it would be adverse to ignore his impressive results on clay. He started the year ranked 157, and has nearly halved his ranking, an excellent effort. He should expect to start appearing in more ATP main draws, and even gain some more hardcourt experience through the rest of this season. This would stand him in very good stead. If he continues to struggle on non-clay surfaces it may not be the end of the world. Many players such as Albert Ramos-Vinolas, and Albert Montanes have made very comfortable and successful Top 100 careers based mainly on clay results. Clay events also run almost inclusively throughout the year. If there is no ATP event there will be a Challenger event. With his success it is only a matter of time before he takes that first ATP win.
At twenty-three, Cecchinato is not quite in the same promise league as Nick Kyrgios and Borna Coric. But it would be insulting to ignore him. In a sport where the population is ageing, there must be players who can step up and fill in the gap. Though even at this early stage, Cecchinato is definitely a specialist, and that will help and hinder him. He does not look like a world-beater, but if he can improve his results on all other surfaces then a Top 30 career may not be beyond him.
