Juan Pablo Paz in the photo
With the elimination of n.1 Gabriele Pennaforti, seven of the eight seeds were eliminated. The only one still in the race is Juan Pablo Paz, an Argentinian who has been running a YouTube channel for two years in which he tells the behind-the-scenes stories of his career. “And I have more sponsors today than when I was top-300”
There is a paradigm that is more or less set in stone: in Challengers and ITFs there is more room for surprises than in tournaments on the major circuit. Below the hundredth position there is an impressive balance, which numbers and rankings are incapable of describing. And so it is not surprising that even noble seeds have fallen. However, at the AZIMUT Trophy in Bergamo ($15,000, clay) things are going further: we do not know if it is a record, but it is certain that in the quarterfinals there is only one seed left in the competition, the 29-year-old Argentine Juan Pablo Paz, a former top-300 ATP player who is now in 591st position and is number 3 in the seeding at the Tennis Club Città dei Mille. By beating Leonardo Margaroli from Bergamo with a convincing 6-4 6-2 he reached the quarterfinals, improving on the second round reached in 2021, the year of his only appearance in Bergamo. Then he beat Alessandro Bega (second seed) but surrendered in the eighth round to his compatriot Galarza. This year he automatically becomes the favorite because all the pillars of the seeding have fallen, one after the other. The last to give in was Gabriele Pennaforti, number 1 in the draw. The Roman fought for two and a half hours against the other Argentine Lucio Carnevalle, but surrendered with the score of 6-1 1-6 6-4.
A CHANNEL WITH 5,000 SUBSCRIBERS
His KO joins those of Kestelboim (n.2, already out in the first round) and the German Wiedenmann, defeated in three sets by Juan Cruz Martin Manzano. If we add the exits of Giacomini and La Vela (first round) and Otegui (in the eighth finals), the game is done. And then only Paz remains in the competition, who in addition to being a good player is proving to be a good entrepreneur of himself. Although he is no longer very young, he has understood the value of social media and the internet, trying to increase his visibility through a YouTube channel. He is not the only second-tier player to do so: the most famous is the Frenchman Jules Marie, but also the British Felix Mischker has obtained more than one benefit from the intuition of showing online the behind the scenes of his career. Paz opened his channel two years ago and has been able to be consistent over time, making 85 videos that have allowed him to collect over 5,000 subscribers. “A few years ago I was in the top 300, now my ranking is much worse and yet I have more sponsors than ever” he says, because his videos allow us to see images usually ignored by the mainstream media. Several companies have believed in his project, investing in him in exchange for visibility. In fact, these are very interesting videos, perfect for drawing attention to the other side of tennis. In all this, Paz does not lose hope of reaching the qualifications of the Grand Slam tournaments and in this sense tournaments like the AZIMUT Trophy are functional to the objective. In the quarterfinals he will face 20-year-old Stefano D’Agostino, one of the several Italians still in the competition. Paz and D’Agostino will inaugurate the program on Friday at 12.
