Mattia Bellucci will never forget the past weekend.
It all started in Atlanta, where the 23-year-old qualified for an ATP Tour event for the first time and took advantage by winning his first two tour-level matches and reaching the quarter-finals. That in itself was normal.
Then came his quarter-final Friday evening against Arthur Rinderknech. Due to rain, their clash did not end until nearly 1:30 a.m. local time, when Rinderknech prevailed in three sets. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Italian knew he had to quickly travel to Washington for his first-round qualifying match at the Mubadala Citi DC Open later that day.
“I said, 'I'm going to take the earliest flight to go there, and then I'll try to sleep there'. And the earliest one was at 5:30 a.m,” Bellucci told ATPTour.com. “I basically just went back to my room, I packed and we went directly to the airport, so I didn't sleep at all. And then we got to Washington around 8 a.m., maybe 8:30.”
Upon his arrival, Bellucci ate breakfast because he had still not eaten. From 9 a.m. until noon, he slept.
“Then I went to the club, I had lunch, and I hit for like 30 minutes, 25 minutes, just to try the conditions, which were completely different from Atlanta, actually,” Bellucci said.
[ATP APP]That did not stop the three-time ATP Challenger Tour titlist, who defeated Tristan Boyer 7-6(6), 6-2.
“My mindset was actually to stay completely on what my attitude was on court, because I knew that physically speaking, I was not feeling great. And also about tennis, I couldn't ask much [of] myself since… I didn't sleep during the night. So I really tried to be as focused as I could,” Bellucci said. “But the beginning of the match wasn't the best actually, yesterday, went a break down at the beginning and then managed to break back.”
Bellucci was not thrilled with how he played, but he tried to mentally remain engaged and to pump himself up with shouts of “Come on!” without losing too much energy.
“Otherwise, I would have fallen asleep, I think,” Bellucci said. “When he went to the bathroom, I was seated for four or five minutes. And I was not feeling great, this was between first and second set. It was definitely crazy.”
Saturday evening, Bellucci tried to rest as much as possible. On Sunday, the Italian was back at it and battled past Leandro Riedi 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(4) in two hours and 47 minutes to qualify for his first ATP 500 event.
“I’m very, very happy. And about my tennis, I actually feel that, yes, I'm playing good. But these two matches weren't the best. And also in some matches of last week, I wasn't completely happy about it, so that's very, very good [that I’ve been winning],” Bellucci said. “It means that I can improve a lot. And at the same time, I really feel that I have many more solutions than a few weeks ago and a few months ago, mentally speaking. So when I'm in a bad situation, I know how to try to stay focused and how to stay in the match.”
It has been a memorable few days for the 23-year-old, who on Monday reached a career-high No. 125 in the PIF ATP Rankings. He will face American Mackenzie McDonald on Monday in the first round of the Washington main draw.
“I qualified for the first time in ATP event, then won the first time my first match, then first quarter-final, and right now qualified for my first 500 event, so I'm very, very happy,” Bellucci said. “I will obviously try to keep going and embracing it as much as I could.”
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