In an interview to Il Corriere Trentino, former player Andrea Stoppini commented on the best legends of the game. “In terms of gamestyle Roger Federer has no rivals, Rafael Nadal is unplayable on clay but when he is at the top, Novak Djokovic stays the best.”
Speaking of the Italian tennis, Stoppini indicated two names for the future: “Lorenzo Musetti and Jannik Sinner, with them we are in good hands.”
Reflecting on his family grassroots, Stoppini added: “My family just played and followed football. My mother was a teacher at the primary school, my father was working in mechanics. That’s all. But they understood my team and since I was a little talented they always tried to make it easy.”
Asked if he has regrets, the Italian replied: “Looking at where I started, I think I did a lot. If I looked at my qualities, I have some regret. I could be on the top 50, I retired early, at 31 years of age, but I am okay with it.”
What would he do differently? “I would take it as a job. Until the 25 years of age, I always considered tennis as a great enjoyment, with less schedule. Sometimes I did by my head too much.’ Stoppini finally recalled his win over the eight-time Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi: “I tell a training mate of mine that I wanted to go to the United States to play.
We played Challengers the entire summer and I earned points to qualify for the 500 Masters of Washington. I went through the qualifying and in the first round, I defeated Goldstein. Then in the second round, I met Agassi. I did not want to lose 6-0 6-0.
It was totally different, as I won the first set, he broke a racket, I broke him again and won the second 6-4.”
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