Bagnis Relishes Familiar Footing In Cortina

Facundo Bagnis has already won three ATP Challenger Tour titles in 2016, but he’s eager to add another to the list this week.

The 26-year-old Argentine is the third seed at this week’s $50,000 event in Cortina, Italy. Setting the tone for what he hopes will be a successful week, Bagnis won 81 per cent of his first serve points to prevail in his opening round against Christian Garin of Chile, 6-1, 7-6(2).

Having started the year at No. 140 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Bagnis’ Challenger success pushed him inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings to his current standing of No. 91.

“I think I’m having so much success now because I worked a lot and for a very long time. It’s always about being ready and fit. That’s the only way you can get to a higher level,” said Bagnis. “This is the outcome of working every day, any given week of the year.”

Bagnis opened 2016 by winning three $50,000 ATP Challenger Tour events in the first three months of the year (Buenos Aires and Rio De Janeiro in January, followed by Santiago in March). All eight of his Challenger singles title have come on clay. Growing up playing on the red clay in his hometown of Rosario, he admitted he prefers to play on the surface whenever possible.

“We have so many clay courts in Argentina, so I’m confident playing on it,” he said. “You have to be physically good for clay and right now I’m in great shape. I’m physically well and that’s because of my good nutrition and attention to recovery… I have a great team with me, which helps me so much and makes me a better player.”

But Bagnis doesn’t want to be known as just a clay-courter. He’s working on being more aggressive to end points quickly and making more frequents trips to the net to finish off points. The Argentine has already been showing off these improvements in Cortina, a tournament which he has quickly grown to love.

“This city is beautiful,” he said. “We’ve already had the chance to take walks around and do activities in our spare time. We enjoyed the official players’ dinner up in the mountains as well. That was really cool.”