A first ATP World Tour match win and a new coaching set up have given Gianluigi Quinzi a fresh impetus towards his 2017 goal.
“I have been through a period that wasn’t that good, I wasn’t winning a lot of matches, but I’ve changed coaches to work with Fabio Gorietti,” said Quinzi. “It’s only the third week of working together and I’m feeling very good.”
The switch has provided instant results. The 21 year old opened his account on the ATP World Tour earlier this month at the Grand Prix Hassan II with a 7-6(8), 6-3 victory over Paul-Henri Mathieu. The left-hander then narrowly fell 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4 to countryman and World No. 38 Paolo Lorenzi.
“We have already gone through qualifying at an ATP World Tour event, in Marrakech, and I won another match too, which gives me unbelievable confidence, knowing I can be competitive with these guys at that level,” added the Italian. “Lorenzi is a top player, especially for his age and I only just lost.”
“I then came to China feeling confident. In the China International Challenger Qingdao 2017, I played ok and managed to beat (Blaz) Kavcic, before a tough match with Kimmer Coppejans. Here at the 2017 Kunming Challenger, I came through qualies again. I’ve played great, but I came up against a guy (Oscar Otte) with great confidence, who made a final in Qingdao last week.”
Quinzi hopes that breaking new ground on the ATP World Tour and keeping up promising performances on the ATP Challenger Tour can provide the catalyst for his charge to qualify for the inaugural #NextGenATP Finals.
[ALSO LIKE]
The tournament, to take place 7-11 November, will feature the world's top seven plus one wild card 21-and-under singles players just a few hours drive from where Quinzi grew up in Cittadella, Padua.
“It’s a big goal for me, especially because it is in Italy. Milan is amazing. I hope I can play, but for now it is just a dream,” revealed Quinzi. “I would be so happy to qualify, it’s near my city and would be in front of home support. All the crowd would be with me! It’s unbelievable as I didn’t expect it to be in Italy, which makes it 10 times better.”
Quinzi is No. 252 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and is targeting the Top 200 as a successful campaign. However, he is realistic regarding the task ahead.
“Last year I played well on the ATP Challenger Tour, especially in Italy, making the Cordenons semi-finals (l. Daniel), but the level now is getting harder,” added Quinzi. “I have only played one ATP World Tour tournament, in Marrakech, and the level was obviously much higher.
“You have to be ready to train every day, to be focused on every tournament, every game, every point, because you have very good guys who are also competing week in and week out like this.”
In order to fulfil his goals, Quinzi is aware all aspects on and off the court have to be improved and adjusted.
“In my game I can work on everything every day, but I’d like to learn to play more aggressively,” said Quinzi. “Physically you have to be strong and learn how to recover from playing. Mentally you have to be strong, you must train for your matches so that you believe you can beat players with a better ranking, so you don’t get down in these harder matches. All areas you have to be strong.”