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Open Court took these photos in Rome last year, after 28-year-old Italian Stefano Napolitano had lost in the first round of the singles main draw.
Already, it was impressive effort for the then-No. 555 to get through the qualifying on a wild card.
He’d given No. 59 Alex Molcan all he could handle, going down in a third-set tiebreak after beating Aleksandar Kovacevic and Maximiliar Marterer.
He was practicing, preparing for his next tournament – a Challenger in Turin that he also had to qualify for.
Napolitano was basically a career Challenger guy, a stylish player who got into the top 200 for a few periods during his career. But not a player, as he neared 30, who was on the rise.
Fast forward a year – and the 29-year-old Napolitano is at a career high of No. 125. And he’s into the third round at the Masters 1000 in Rome.
And he owes a tip of the cap to Matteo Berrettini.
(Update: a spirited, 2h21 battle, but he went down 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to No. 21 seed Nicolas Jarry).

A long road from the 500s
During Roland Garros a year ago, Napolitano played a $25K ITF in Rome and then an entry-level $15K in Frascati, Italy. And he didn’t even win either of those.
But slowly, things began to click. He won a $25K on clay during Wimbledon. And then he got to a pair of Challenger quarterfinals from the qualifying – losing to quality players a bit down on their luck in Pedro Martinez and David Goffin.
He ended his 2023 season winning an entry-level $15K which was, as nearly all of his tournaments were last season, in Italy.
This season, Napolitano has won three Challengers. And he sits at a career-high No. 125 this week in Rome.
He ended up getting main-draw wild card, after Matteo Berrettini squeezed into the main draw and didn’t need it. But he was obviously a long way from the Italian federation’s first choice, obviously.

Lucky losers galore
The first two rounds in Rome were Napolitano’s first career wins at the Masters 1000 level – actually, his first career victories on the ATP Tour after he came in with an 0-3 career record.
And he got lucky: Berrettini ended up withdrawing, and J.J. Wolf came in as a lucky loser. Napolitano beat Wolf. And then he beat another lucky loser, Juncheng Shang.
And so on Monday, he finds himself, rather improbably, in the third round against Nicolas Jarry of Chile.
Even if he doesn’t win, Napolitano will bank more than 50,000 Euros and defend points from a Challenger effort a year ago. It’s nearly as much as he grossed all of 2023, even as he played 22 tournaments at every level.

Not to mention all the confidence he’ll bring into the qualifying at Roland Garros.
Napolitano qualified in Paris in his first career attempt, all the way back in 2017. He beat Marton Fucsovics and Alexander Bublik to get there, and then upset Mischa Zverev (then ranked No. 31) in the first round before losing to Diego Schwzartzman.
But he hasn’t won more than a round in qualifying since then, in three attempts. And he hasn’t even been ranked high enough to even try since the fall version all the way back in 2020.

Never give up
The first takeaway from this is a reiteration of one of the reasons why there are so many tennis players coming out of Italy these days.
Napolitano wasn’t making any money and likely was on a pretty limited budget. But because of the sheer number of tournaments at the ITF and Challenger level in Italy, he was able to keep competing and playing while not having to travel far from home, as he tried to turn it around.
The other takeaway is the truism in tennis, even as so many try to retire players when they’re having a tough time: you never know. If you have the level – or believe you do – why not keep trying until you literally just run out of options?
Napolitano is a great example of that perseverence.
great story-hope he goes further!