Marco Trungelliti reached his first final in Marrakech, achieving his "big goal" of a top-100 debut after surviving severe backlash.

Marco Trungelliti spent 18 years as a ghost in professional tennis. He was always too good to quit but never quite good enough to break through to the sport’s upper echelon. That finally changed on the clay courts of Morocco, when he became the oldest player to reach his first ATP final.

The 36-year-old Argentine defeated Corentin Moutet 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semifinals of the ATP 250 event in Marrakech. The victory pushed him to No. 85 in the live rankings. When the official list is updated on Monday, he will become the oldest player to make his top-100 debut since 1975.

Trungelliti has a story about standing up to a corrupt system and nearly losing his career for it.

The Price Tag on Marco Trungelliti’s Integrity

A first-round loss at a lower-level event might pay just a few hundred dollars. Fixers know exactly how to exploit that desperation. In 2015, they approached Trungelliti and offered him up to $100,000 to manipulate matches at the ATP level.

For a player ranked outside the top 100, that is truly life-changing money. He could have taken the cash and solved his financial problems instantly.

Instead, he said no. He reported the incident to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU). His testimony helped expose a broader match-fixing network within Argentine tennis, leading to bans for several players.

Although he was hailed as a hero, the...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimgFBVV95cUxNclo4VDNvZEMtMmxNX2hsdzVB...