Diego began his international carreer by playing Interclubs in Italy in 2002. Enrico Casadei remembers well “El Chico de Obera”…

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From the Atletico Club to a Federer challenge in Paris… And from Roland Garros Centre Court, Diego Hartfield’s pony tail came up…

Settesere - May 2006

On Sunday afternoon Roland Garros started, with His Majesty Roger Federer playing his first round match on Centre Court against an unknown qualifier. So unknown that the Swiss world number one must have been slightly surprised, since he found himself 3-0 down in the first set, and, in general, struggled a lot almost up to be annoyed (7-5, 7-5, 6-2 the final score) to set himself free of his opponent. But if someone from Faenza was watching that match, he must have been even more amazed than Federer, because on that court battling against the world tennis dominator (Nadal allowing), there was Diego Hartfield, a man who, until little time ago, was hanging around the courts of the Atletico Club in Via Medaglie d’Oro, a man who less than two years ago was playing, and winning, in our national second division.

«Diego is an Argentinian player – says Enrico Casadei, a trainer in Faenza’s club – who, back in 2002, had chosen Perugia, and coach Alberto Castellani, as a European base for his attempt to become a pro. Since Rinaldini, then the president of our club, knows Castellani well, he asked him if he could send Diego to play with us. So it happened and with Diego we moved up to serie A2».

Hartfield remains in Faenza for two years, giving everyone a very good impression, but in 2004 he realizes the time has come to try the big adventure.

«We felt very sorry to see him go – says Casadei – but he wanted to turn pro and couldn’t waste two months a year to play the team championship. So, thanks to Giorgio Bruschi’s help, who also gave him an economical push towards great tennis, he left us to start the international activity. And after the early hurdles, I would say now the results have come: he won a couple of challengers (Tunica Resort and Atlanta, in the US, beating former top-20 Mardy Fish, and now he is number 155 in the world rankings -author’s annotation-) and qualified for Roland Garros, where he really played well at his debut in such an important stage».

Hartfield, a 25 year old from Obera, Argentina, but a Buenos Aires resident, a pony tail going out his cap (he looks like Gaston Gaudio, his surely more famous compatriot), left a very good memory in town.«Really a nice, quiet, easy-going and kind guy. Our advisor Cibotti had found a flat in the centre for him. Here he had a group of persons who helped him, because, since he hadn’t got a wealthy family behind him, he struggled to earn his living. And now we love to think that part of his success comes from Faenza’s push of recent years».

(Translation by Mauro Cappiello)