Luca Van Assche, the clay champion who dreams of the Top 100 and supports Atalanta: “My climb starts again from Monza”
Frenchman originally from Bergamo, twenty years old, number 174 in the world ranking, returns to play after a month of forced stoppage: "I am tied to my origins, thanks to my grandparents and pasta"
Qualifications started yesterday, today the finals for access to the main draw
On the passport, the nationality entry says French. But in the veins of Luca Van Assche the Flemish blood of his father Arthur and the Bergamo blood of his mother Patrizia run through him. And in the family, even with his siblings Sofia, Elisa and Paolo, Italian is spoken, indeed. Their first names, after all, are proof that our country is (always) in their hearts. “Since I was little, I returned to Italy a couple of times a year, I spent the summer and Easter holidays in Bergamo with my grandparents,” Luca says. “But since tennis became my job and I started to travel the world, I lost that habit a bit. Even though I do everything I can to find some time to return. It’s always a pleasure. And then Bergamo is a beautiful city." From there to Monza it's about forty kilometers, "relatives and friends will surely come to cheer" at the Villa Reale Tennis club.
Luca Van Assche, born in 2004, is in the draw of the ATP Challenger Atkinsons Monza Open 25. “They will be my first matches after a month of stop, finally now I feel 100% – assures Luca –. Since the beginning of the year I have played very little due to some injuries, I am really happy to be able to get back in shape on the courts”. The red clay is his habitat. It always has been. Even on the rectangles of the club behind the house where “my parents signed me up when we moved to Paris, so I could do sports and make new friends”. Luca was only 4 years old and since then tennis has entered his DNA. Today he reached number 174 in the world ranking, his goal is to continue to think big, but without getting a big head, "thinking step by step". (Re)starting right from the fields of Monza: "All the opponents will be tough, but I trained well, in Rome in these last days, with Vincenzo Santopadre and I think I have the chance to get some satisfaction".
Talent, sacrifice, but here in Italy, also a little 'secret' to have an extra edge: "I'm crazy about the pasta and pizza you make", he confesses. As well as the dishes from Bergamo. But he also loves football from 'his' homeland: "Well, I'm French and I'm a Paris Saint Germain fan, but my grandfather passed on to me his passion for Atalanta. To tell the truth, the biggest Nerazzurri fan is my brother Paolo (for his birthday we gave him tickets to the second leg of the Europa League semi-final against Marseille), but everyone in the family follows the Goddess”.