Marco Trungelliti, 36, will become oldest men’s tennis top-100 debutant in 50 years

With a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset win over Corentin Moutet on Friday, Marco Trungelliti confirmed a feat bestowed on him too early by the tennis powers that be.

Trungelliti, 36, will become the oldest men’s tennis top-100 debutant in 50 years on Monday. His run to the semifinals of the Hassan Grand Prix II in Marrakech, Morocco is part of a 10-match win streak that has propelled him to world No. 85 in the live rankings, which account for progress in ongoing tournaments, as well as the ones already played this season.

Not all of the 15 players below him have the opportunity to overhaul him before the next world rankings update on Apr. 6, with which Trungelliti will enter the top 100 for the first time.

The Argentine started this week in Marrakech as world No. 117, having won a ATP Challenger Tour event in Kigali, Rwanda the week before. He had to qualify for the main draw in Marrakech, and doing so gave him the chance to beat world No. 52 Kamil Majchrzak and then world No. 32 Moutet to reach the semifinals and achieve a new career high. Against the Frenchman, who is a master of the trick shot, Trungelliti even found time for a little flair of his own:

Official ATP Tour social media accounts had said he had achieved the feat by beating Majchrzak, because that took him to No. 100 in the live rankings. In reality, players below him could have overtaken him, had he lost to Moutet. Now, not enough of them can do so to displace him from top 100.

Trungelliti has never been officially ranked higher than world No. 112, which he achieved in 2019. He has played 963 professional singles matches in a career spanning 19 seasons, with nine main-draw appearances at Grand Slams delivering four wins. He has won six ATP Challenger Tour titles, the rung below the main tour, and this is the second tour-level semifinal of his career.

Trungelliti is best known in the tennis world for his role in exposing attempts at match-fixing, after he was approached in 2015. Trungelliti reported the approach, as the sport’s anti-corruption rules require, and after a three-year investigation, three of his compatriots were suspended for either fixing matches or failing to report approaches to do so.

He will play Luciano Darderi of Italy in Marrakech on Saturday, safe in the knowledge that no matter the result, a two-digit rankings is in his grasp for the first time in 17 years.

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