Fabio Fognini

“I’m only human.”—Fabio Fognini

Fabio Fognini swears a lot when he plays tennis. He abuses the ball and the chair umpire. He shouts insults at spectators. He smashes his racket. He’s been called “Harakiri Fognini” and “Fogna” (Italian for “sewer”). He’s very emotional. He easily gets very angry. But he plays a good game of tennis. At the end of 2017 he was ranked No. 27 in the world. He has been as high as No. 13 (in 2014). He’s No. 1 in Italy.

Take the 2017 Wimbledon, where in the third round Fognini seriously threatened Andy Murray with defeat. In a thrilling game, Murray eventually narrowly won in four sets in what was described as a “desperate” victory. Kevin Mitchell, writing in the Guardian, said, “Fognini . . . now induced shivers of uncertainty in Murray’s strokeplay, freezing his self-confidence as he barrelled into every exchange as if it were the last rally and he was about to win the title. . . . There is a widely held and correct view on the Tour that to strike Fognini on one of his great days is very hell.” Fognini had easily beaten Murray earlier in the year, in two sets, at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Fognini might have won against Murray at Wimbledon 2017 if he had not been handed a penalty point for an obscene gesture, putting his finger into his mouth and sucking it. This was not the first time Fognini had gotten into trouble at Wimbledon. In 2014 he had to pay the largest fine in Wimbledon history for an outburst on court when he damaged the grass surface with his racket, verbally abused a tournament official, and, again, made an obscene gesture to his opponent. Obscene gestures and comments are routine for Fognini. At the 2014 Shanghai Masters, he gave the crowd a middle finger. In 2013, in Hamburg, he called his winning opponent, Filip Krajinović, “zingaro di merda” (“shitty Gypsy”).

Fognini was born in 1987 in San Remo, Italy. He began playing tennis when he was four years old (although he’s said that his favorite sport is soccer). He is a clay-court specialist who attracted serious attention when he reached the quarterfinals at the 2011 French Open. His hot temper has consistently hampered him.

He can play a good game of tennis.

To play Fognini on one of his great days is hell.

In June 2016 he married Flavia Pennetta, another Italian tennis star, who earlier had had a disastrous and very public love affair with Carlos Moyá, former world No. 1. In 2015, Pennetta won the US Open and then retired. One newspaper reported: “Beaming down from the stands in celebration of her triumph on Saturday was the Italian tennis radical, Fabio Fognini. He had put Nadal out of the men’s draw in the third round, returned to Italy to wind down and rushed back to New York when Pennetta made the final.” In May 2017, the couple had a son, Federico. At the July 5, 2017, Wimbledon press conference, Fognini was asked, “How is fatherhood? Do you think it has an effect on your tennis?” He replied: “Well, I don’t know. You have to say. I mean, at the moment I’m really happy, happy because my family is well, they’re rightly. Baby is good. I’m good, too. I’m feeling really good. Nothing else to say. We are really happy, enjoy when I went home these three weeks before coming here.” Tennis wags hoped that marriage to Pennetta would calm Fognini down. It didn’t.

“Troia!” “Bocchinara!” (“Whore!” “Cocksucker!”) That’s what Fognini called the female chair umpire, the Swede Louise Engzell, at the first round of the 2017 US Open (he lost the match). Fognini later apologized for his behavior and explained that everyone has bad days. “I’m only human,” he said. An outraged Rafael Nadal said that the International Tennis Federation was too slow in responding to Fognini’s obscene tirade. Fognini, bizarrely, said he was prepared to discuss his mistake with schoolchildren. “I’m prepared to enter a tennis school, or any school, and speak to the kids and say what I think—which is that I made a mistake and it won’t happen again.” He told a reporter, “I am working with a mental trainer. . . . cried when I was alone, I admit it.” In October 2017 the Grand Slam Board banned Fognini from the US Open and one other grand slam, a ban to take effect if he committed another major offense before the end of 2019. It also fined him $96,000, reduced to $48,000 if he stays on good behavior for the next two years (in addition to the $24,000 he already paid on-site at the time he insulted Engzell). This punishment was criticized by many as inadequate and taking too long to impose. One commentator asked, “Well-intentioned as the board’s decision in the Fognini case may be, it still leaves a question hanging: What does a guy have to do to get suspended around here?”

At Roland Garros 2017 Fognini lost in straight sets to Wawrinka, but seemed happy.

His own worst enemy?