ROLAND GARROS

May 24, 2026

Marco Trungelliti

Press Conference

M. TRUNGELLITI/K. Jacquet

6-4, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on your performance today. Winning against the crowd's favorite is not always easy, especially in straight sets. How did you feel on court today?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I was very hot, especially at the beginning, but I felt the crowd especially in the first set, because it was very even.

But I was lucky enough to get some advantage. I was serving 4-3 in the first set, and then also got broken, and immediately I broke back.

So then I took the first set, which with the conditions like this was going to be very important. Also, at the beginning on the second and the third set I also broke pretty fast, which gave me some extra air, and at the end it worked out.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. So after everything you've been through in the last years, what does it mean to you? How do you feel about the success now?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I'm still trying to be living day by day. I'm actually enjoying this moment of my life. It took a while, that's for sure.

But I do feel that I have a lot to -- there is a lot to be done yet in terms of tennis. And physically, hopefully the injuries are going to respect me a little bit more.

I got to keep working. I have a feeling that I can keep climbing on the ranking, which at the end is almost the most important thing.

But, also, my matureness is much better now than what it was before, given the circumstances, and also having this matureness is giving me the chance to enjoy a little bit more than what I used to do it.

Q. Congratulations on your season. There's a lot of older players that are having a lot of success lately. Sorana Cirstea making her debut this week in the top 20, and Djokovic is still in the top 5, and he's playing tonight at age 39. Is there something in common with all of these players? How do you explain all this?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I don't know. I think my case is a little bit different because I'm reaching my peak on my 30-something, 36, which I don't think is the case of the other guys.

They were at their peak before, but even though the level that they are showing on court is simply unbelievable. Also, we had some examples before from the woman's side that they were getting back after pregnancy and the stuff, which everybody knows that it is extremely hard to do that.

Having those examples, also Cilic. I was sharing some tournaments with him last year when he was playing Challengers, and the level of professionalism that these guys has is unbelievable.

So I was just trying to copy them, the examples that I could actually get to see them, and I just put it in my favor.

Also, you need to be lucky as well, because the injuries are always there, and then you have to be very, very smart on choosing the calendar that you have to on places that are on your favor, but it's a combination of things.

At the end you have to be lucky, once. You have to work like an animal, twice -- second. And then, also, having the consistency is extremely important in this game and in this sport because it's what keeps you up.

Once you start having injuries, and we can see with Draper and many other examples, then you start going up and down, and it's very hard to achieve something like this.

Q. You mentioned there about the injuries. Why do you think you do seem to be peaking now, because typically you'd expect a player to have more injuries kind of the longer they play for?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Good question. At least in my case I'm investing a lot more in physios. They are traveling with me 24/7.

I really started doing, like, two years ago or something like that on more in a serious way. That's one of the reasons I kept playing, basically, because at one point I couldn't actually move. It was hard to me. It was very hard to go back to sleep during night. It was very hard after the matches. It was very hard recovering from matches.

It was a long process, but also the way I'm working out today is completely different than something that I have done my whole career, in terms of how much time I spend on court, how much time I spend doing fitness, and how much time I spend with the physio.

Physio doesn't mean that you are laying back on the table and just getting treatment. It's a whole combination of things. It's the way you go to the gym. Instead probably of lifting weights, you are just working on very small and very specific muscles and also the joints and everything.

And the way that you recover and the way you focus your recovery is completely different, at least in my case. That's one of the reasons that I can keep playing.

Q. What was the injury when you couldn't move?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Everything. When you get something like this, you can start with the hips, and then you go to the foot, and then you go to knees, and then you go to ankles, and then you go to pretty much everything. Basically, it's trying to get everything more balanced.

Then at the end you've got to keep functioning. The way that also you've got to treat -- at least in my case, you've got to treat the body like an old car. If the car -- if the old car stops, everybody knows that it's completely done.

So in my case, I'm just trying -- even when it's very painful, you just try to keep moving your body as much as you could. When it's too much and then you've got to stop, then you are doing in a different way, but you never really stop. That's one of the reasons I never took vacation as well.

Q. In terms of years ago when you called out the match fixing, you've been through a lot in your career. Do you think that maybe played a role in the late breakthrough? Do you feel like you've been through nine lives in your tennis career?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yeah, indeed really hurt me back then. Also, I was very innocent in the sense that I was expecting that the system would help me out a little bit, and it was completely the opposite.

The whole package of institutions were never there, and they are still not there. We're still looking for answers. We're still looking for the system to be more supportive of the players, but we are too far from that. We are still very separated in terms of the governing bodies.

You see the French Federation is going by his side, and then the English one is going by his side. Then the Australian, and then at the end ATP is also, WTA is also going by their side, and then you have the PTPA.

So I think as players we are still very -- I don't find the right word, but for me it is very stupid what is going on right now, because then you've got to be able to use the channels that are available, and there is a lawsuit going on, and somehow we as the players -- I mean, I'm not putting myself in there, but somehow the letter that was written, I have no idea what it is inside, which for me is very unfortunate, because at the end, we are just a very few players.

We are not the 1,000 or 2,000 or 100,000. We are just a few ones. I think would be much more better on how the institutions are seeing us in the sense that if you all work together, it's much more easier at the end to achieve things. If we keep doing these kind of things, then at the end, it's going to be exactly the same shit as always, yeah.

Q. Just a follow-up to that one. How is your relationship with Argentinians, like in your home country, other players? You had some tough times.

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: Yeah, some humans are still there (smiling). I'm pretty sure not so many people like me, but in comparison to what I was thinking, I mean, like ten years ago, I don't care right now.

I have good relationships with the people that really wants to come and say, Hi, how are you, and that's it, because at the end, the relationship in tennis is more that than any other thing. You're not going to become friends with someone that maybe next day you're going to be facing.

But that's the atmosphere that we live on tennis. Yeah, nowadays it's okay. I'm not choosing to go back. I'm not going to go back, for sure, because the place that I chose now since the last ten years, I've been living in Andorra. It's amazing for me and my wife, and we feel very safe there. The quality of life is amazing. Argentina right now is having a hard time, but that's it.

I don't know, back then, like, ten years ago I was very afraid to go back, and for a certain period I wasn't able to go back because I was very afraid. Also, the sensations, the feelings, that I had when I went back and tried to play the tournaments, it wasn't great.

Maybe in the future, I don't know. It depends on how, let's say, brave I am to go back, but it's a long story. I don't want to put myself in a box and then say, no, no, I would never go back, because everybody is a bad human there. It's not the right thing.

There is a lot of good human beings in Argentina, and I got also a lot of love. But at the end, let's say, the wrong guys that were the ones that were more louder than the good ones.

Also, because before I was feeling more like a victim, then I was more focused on that side of my life, let's say, and it was hard to move away from that.

At the end after a few years, I moved on.

Q. When was the last time you went back to Argentina?

MARCO TRUNGELLITI: I played, I think it was last year, in Rosario, the Challenger, and also I played in Buenos Aires.

But when I went back to Buenos Aires, it was tough, because it was also the last tournament that I played there before everything went public. I couldn't manage the feelings. It was too much for me back then.

I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't. So maybe next year. Maybe I'm not prepared at all to go back and play there, but we'll see. Lately I played Davis Cup from Argentina, and I felt amazing.

But I still, I still feel like I have a spine in my heart, and it's going to be there forever. It's just simple as that.