Matteo's 'Gigante' leap forward on Challenger Tour

MEF Tennis Events

After winning just one of his final eight matches in 2023, Italian Matteo Gigante implemented changes in his game that have been pivotal to his rise into the Top 150 of the PIF ATP Rankings.

The 22-year-old has since been a dominant force on the ATP Challenger Tour this year, boasting a 16-2 season record, tied for third most wins at that level.

Gigante attributes his recent success to his partnership with new coach Marco Gulisano, whom he started working with in December, and the benefits derived from his sessions with a psychologist since last July.

“The area we are most working on is the mental area. Not only the training on court but also outside the court,” Gigante told ATPTour.com. “I am working with a psychologist, it's fun for me. When I am at home, I have one meeting a week. But we chat every day when I'm at a tournament. Maybe we talk about the match, if I was feeling good or not during the match.”

Gigante is one of 12 Italians in the Top 150, eight of whom are under the age of 24. The Rome native is in action this week on Italian soil, competing at the Napoli Tennis Cup, where his countryman Luca Nardi, who beat Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells, is seeded second.

The group of young Italians, including Gigante, is finding motivation in building upon each other's achievements.

“You see Luciano Darderi win a 250, you see Flavio Cobolli now 60 in the world. You see [Matteo] Arnaldi, [Giulio] Zeppieri and the most important [Jannik] Sinner and [Lorenzo] Musetti,” Gigante said. “We are a great group and the Federation works hard for us. They are important for us.”

Gigante had an early beginning in tennis, starting at age three alongside his grandfather at a local club. But an important part of Gigante’s professional journey came during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when the then 18-year-old was competing at a junior tournament in Casablanca, Morocco.

Though the ITF junior tournament was suspended before its completion, what transpired later that year has helped Gigante climb to where he is today.

“Maybe three months after, I decided to chase professional tennis. It was a very good decision,” Gigante said. “Before the lockdown, I didn't know if I wanted to continue tennis or not. During the lockdown, I started to talk myself about studying or not and I continued to play tennis, then from there I was better. I was playing five days a week, six hours a day.”

A left-hander who writes with his right, much like his idol Rafael Nadal, Gigante is a four-time ATP Challenger Tour champion. He won the Bangkok Open 3 in January and last month’s Tenerife Challenger 2, a welcome sight after the difficult stretch to close last season.

“After Cordenons [last August], my season was not going well. In these months, I didn't have a coach,” Gigante said. “It was so hard and I think the results were bad for that reason. From July until December, I was only with my physical trainer [Marco Barbarossa].

“The season has gone well so far. I'm really happy about that. I am now working with Marco Gulisano. He's a good coach, a good person. Marco is the key to my success. We work together every day, we are enjoying it together. It's fun to work with him and I think this is the most important.”