Camilo Ugo Carabelli (24 years old, 134th in the ranking) is experiencing a moment of sporting sweetness. Champion of the Challenger in Piracicaba, Brazil, a handful of days ago, he surpassed the ATP qualification in Buenos Aires on Sunday, this Tuesday he celebrated in the first round of the main draw (7-6 [7-5] and 6-4 to the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas, 85th) and, this Thursday, he will have the biggest prize when he enters the central court of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club to face the Spaniard Carlos Alcarazthe No. 2 film in the ranking and defending title.
The case of Ugo Carabelli from Buenos Aires is unprecedented: he is the first player to play in the main draw of the Argentina Open after having had a close connection with the tournament as a ball catcher. “This year, after passing qualifying, Christian Miniussi [extenista y parte de la organización del ATP porteño] He said on Twitter that I had been the first boy to go to the main draw having been a ball boy, I gave him a like, is. I remember that I did quilombo all day, I was always here at the club; When there was a cut of Ball Boys I was the first to fall. Martín (Jaite; the tournament director) took me out of the players’ room all the time because I would go in to play Play, we would steal ice cream and exchange it for balls. It was coming and laughing all day. Being playing here today, seeing the ball boys and talking to them, makes me very happy,” says Camilo, who lives just five blocks from the BALTC and often rides his bicycle.
“The first time I played on center court, I think it was a G2 or G3 final, against Tommy Etcheverry, and I took a terrible beating. This Thursday is going to be crazy. I had the opportunity to play with Lajovic last year and I was overwhelmed with people. Clearly because that day, after me, Alcaraz was playing. Now I try to take it easy,” described Gordo Camilo, whose brother, Jeremías, was a promotion player and nicknamed the “Zlatan Ibrahimovic of the C.” Football, in fact, is another of Ugo Carabelli’s great passions: “I am a fan of San Lorenzo, I have a tattoo. My old man, Gustavo, is sick and he passed it on to me. When I can go to the court, I go. I used to go to the popular, but due to a hip issue, which hurt from standing for so long, I couldn’t go anymore and now I go to the stalls when I can. “I love San Lorenzo.”
Camilo, San Lorenzo fan for his father
Camilo never had anything left over. His mother, María Marta, hosts tennis players in her house to have another income. “She has been doing it for more than ten years. She was always dedicated to tourism and she came up with that idea. Sometimes we barely even see the tennis kids who come, because each one is in a different place. When we meet we have dinner together,” says Camilo.
He has had Carlos Berlocq as coach for “eight or nine months.” “Charly is very intense. I am the complete opposite, very relaxed. Being so opposite we make a very good duo. I started working seriously, he made me see what it means to be a tennis player, to live for tennis, something that I didn’t do. I’ve been working well, I’ve been working hard. I am regaining confidence,” says Ugo Carabelli, right-handed, 1.85m tall, two-handed backhand, whose best ranking was 96th in August 2022.
In the last Australian Open, Ugo Carabelli fell in the third round of qualifying against the Dutchman Jesper De Jong, but he stayed a few more days waiting for the chance to enter as a lucky loser, something that in the end did not happen. In those extra hours in Melbourne he trained, among others, with Daniil Medvedev, Frances Tiafoe and Jannik Sinner, ultimately the champion.
“I was surprised how hard Sinner hits the ball. He was playing in the second round with De Jong and I wondered what he did right and wrong. Inside I was saying, ‘There’s no way I’m going to lose.’ He seemed very humble.” This Thursday he will have the challenge of his life, against Alcaraz, in front of some six thousand people in the National Tennis Cathedral. He already feels it: “I’m going to try not to cry.”
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