At the last Rome Masters, the Italian veteran officially announced that he would retire

"I want to give more space to young people and I've had a great career, so I'm really happy, but everything has a beginning and an end."

Recently, Italian veteran Fognini said this in an interview with the media. He said that this year will be his last time playing in the Rome Masters, and retirement is already on the agenda.

Fognini was born on May 24, 1987 in Sanremo, Italy. Despite officially turning professional in tennis back in 2004, Fognini didn't do well early in his career. It wasn't until 2011 that he made his way into the top 50 for the first time in the world rankings, and he really established himself on the tour stage.

In the 2011 season, Fognini's most impressive achievement was defeating the likes of Montanes at the French Open, reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. However, due to the excessive consumption in the quarter-finals (nearly 5 hours of fierce battles with opponents), Fognini announced his retirement before the quarter-final match against Djokovic, so he did not have the chance to further impact his best record in the Grand Slam.

In the following seasons, Fognini continued to break new ground on the tour stage, including winning Stuttgart in 2013 (his first career title) and the Hamburg Open in 2013 (10 consecutive wins, back-to-back titles), which was also the year Fognini made his first appearance in the top 20.

Fognini's career highest-level men's singles title to date came at the Monte Carlo Masters in 2019, when he defeated Zverev, Čurić and others to reach the semi-finals, and defeated clay-court king Rafael Nadal in straight sets to reach the final. He then defeated Lajovic to win the tournament and became the first Italian in history to win the Masters.

It was also in that year that Fognini entered the top 10 for the first time in the world rankings, but at 32 years old, he is also the oldest player to reach the men's singles top 10 for the first time.

While the singles results continued to break through, Fognini also performed well in the doubles field. At the 2015 Australian Open, he partnered Bollery to win the title. In addition, he sits on seven tour doubles titles.

In recent seasons, Fognini has slipped outside the top 100 in the world rankings due to injuries and declining form due to age, and he entered this year's Rome Masters with a wild card against Fernli in the first round.

So what do you remember most about Fognini? Is it the disgrace on the pitch? Is it the wife Pennetta? Or something else?(Source: Tennis House Author: Barbie)