French Open semi-finalist hints at retiring age 31 after hitting embarrassing new low
After hitting sensational heights previously, one former French Open star has hinted that he could be set to walk away from tennis.
Marco Cecchinato has hinted that he is considering retiring from tennis in a now-deleted Instagram post.
The 31-year-old has struggled for form over the past five years and will need to improve drastically if he is to return to the heights that he reached in 2018 when he reached the latter stages of the French Open.
Cecchinato has enjoyed some sensational moments on the court since qualifying for his first ATP tournament in 2013. However, recent displays appear to be taking their toll on the Italian.
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On Tuesday, Cecchinato was beaten by world No. 524 Federico Arnaboldi in the qualifiers for the Perugia Challenger, in what was a newfound low for the Palermo-born star.
Despite his lowly word ranking, Arnaboldi impressed when claiming the first set 7-5 before Cecchinato narrowly managed to draw level with a 7-6 success in the second set.
The setback appeared to spark improvement from Arnaboldi though, winning the final set 6-3 to book his spot in the next round of the qualifiers and pile further misery on Cecchinato – who did not appear to take the defeat well.
The Italian took to Instagram shortly after his loss and posted a picture of a black screen on his story with the caption "C’e un inizio e una fine…" which translates as "There is a beginning and an end…”
The text was accompanied by a heartbroken emoji but was ultimately deleted by Cecchinato, who has approximately 80,100 followers on Instagram.
It remains to be seen whether Cecchinato decides to walk away from tennis or if the new low will spur him on to improve – though he will need to work harder than he ever has before if he is to return to the form which saw him reach the semi-finals of the French Open in 2018.
Whilst ranked 72nd in the world, he won his first ever Grand Slam match when coming from two sets down to beat Marius Copil. The victory saw Cecchinato build up plenty of improvement as he cruised to victory over Marco Trungelliti and 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the following rounds.
A fourth-round victory over David Goffin saw Cecchinato set himself up with a clash with Novak Djokovic, and the Italian defied the odds to see off the Serbian before he was beaten by Dominic Thiem in the semis.
