Marco Trungelliti, 36-year-old Argentinian tennis player, has commented on the first-round Madrid Open match he lost to Dani Mérida on Thursday at the Madrid Open, a thrilling match where Mérida won the first set 6-4, then Trungelliti claimed the second 6-1, and the third set was decided in a tense tie-break, ending 7(8)-6(6), after Mérida saved two match points, breaking his serve to go to tie-break, where the Spaniard also saved four match points.
The understandable local support to the 21-year-old Mérida, ranked No. 1 in the world, who recently reached his first ATP Final in Bucharest, turned into disrespect when local fans in Madrid booed Trungelliti, whistling at him and making sounds to distract him. Trungelliti confronted the crowd, which only increased tensions and boos, and at one point late in the third set he sat down and refused to continue to play until they did something about it.
On Friday, on Instagram, the Argentinian player posted a story briefly talking about the match. "To finish with last night's matter. Was it shameful? Yes. Was it racist? Yes. Disrespect from the start? Yes. Did they do something about it? Not much. Do I care? No".
