Fabio Fognini Announces Retirement from Tennis
Rome: Fabio Fognini on Wednesday announced his retirement from tennis at the age of 38, after last week giving two-time and defending Wimbledon champion Carlo Alcaraz of Spain a significant challenge in their opening round match. The Ligurian player expressed that retiring now felt like “the best way to say farewell.”
According to Ansa News Agency, Fognini, currently ranked world number 138, achieved a career-high ranking of number nine in July 2019. He found most of his success on clay courts, where he secured eight of his nine ATP singles titles, with the most notable being the 2019 Monte-Carlo Masters. Additionally, he reached the quarterfinals of the 2011 French Open.
In doubles, Fognini, alongside Simone Bolelli, clinched the 2015 Australian Open championship, marking the first time an all-Italian men’s pair won a Grand Slam title in the Open Era. Just last Monday, June 30, he pushed five-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz to five sets, taking the fourth set 6-2 before conceding 6-1 in the final set amid t
he intense heat in South West London.
Since 2014, Fognini has been in a relationship with fellow Italian tennis player Flavia Pennetta, from Brindisi, who herself is a retired player and the 2015 US Open singles champion. The couple got engaged in 2015 and married in Ostuni on June 16, 2016. They welcomed their son in 2017, a daughter in 2019, and their second daughter in 2021.
Fognini, born in Taggia near Imperia, is a supporter of the Inter Milan and Genoa football teams.