Forlán's Foray

Diego Forlán and Vivek Ramaswamy—two men who gained fame in other arenas—were supposed to play professional tennis this week. Only one did.

As the tennis season winds down, my eyes were again drawn to the periphery of the sport, where two men who gained fame in other arenas were set to make their unlikely professional tennis debuts.

The greater attention went to the man who was already a sporting superstar. Diego Forlán, now 45 years old, retired from soccer five years ago after cementing himself one of the best players in Uruguay’s storied soccer history. Forlán’s club career in Europe was highlighted by successful stints in Spain’s La Liga at Villareal and Atletico Madrid, and in the English Premier League at Manchester United. He also led a resurgence for his national team: a striker, Forlán won the Golden Ball at the 2010 World Cup, scoring five goals during Uruguay’s run to fourth place.

Diego Forlan playing for Uruguay against Costa Rica during the 2014 World Cup. (Photo by Danilo Borges)

Unsatisfied by the stationary nature of the typical retirement sport—golf— Forlán took back up a sport he’d played in his youth: tennis. Forlán began playing age-group tournaments around South America on the ITF Masters Tour last year; despite only playing a handful of events, he’s currently ranked 102nd in the 45-and-over category, having reached the singles final of his most recent tournament in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion. He also won the doubles title at his previous tournament in the Peruvian capital Lima.

Forlán was encouraged by a friend to enter Uruguay’s biggest professional tournament, the Uruguay Open, a $100,000 challenger being held this week at the Carrasco Lawn Tennis Club at Montevideo, which is where Forlan now trains about four times each week.

Forlán only entered the doubles in Montevideo, partnering with Argentina’s Federico Coria, the much younger brother of former ATP No. 3 Guillermo Coria. Federico has been a top-50 singles player himself, and is currently 101st in the ATP singles rankings. His doubles pedigree is pretty nonexistent however, having never broken the Top 200.

Not that it really mattered to the thousands of Uruguayans who packed into the stands on Wednesday night in Montevideo: they were there to see Forlán and Forlán alone. Amusingly, the walk-on order to the stadium had the opposing Bolivian pair of Federico Zeballos and Boris Arias walk out together first, then Coria by himself, then Forlán by himself last (apologies for the terrible audio on the announcer):

The Run of Play in Montevideo

Once the match began, the Bolivians won the first five points in a row before the star attraction finally got on the board. Forlán proved himself pretty capable when hovering over the net, able to put away balls that came his direction to the delight of the crowd.

But Forlán couldn’t keep up, ultimately. The Bolivians began targeting his much weaker backhand wing, which misfired badly on returns.

As the match turned sharply against Forlán, the Uruguayan crowd began booing and whistling whenever the Bolivians hit the ball too hard in Forlán’s direction.

Down 1-6, 2-5, with the finish line in sight, the crowd began chanting in soccer-style for their soccer star: “¡Olé, olé, olé, Diegoooo, Diego!” The Bolivians won the next game to take the match, 6-1, 6-2. The match lasted only 46 minutes, as long as one half of a soccer game. You can watch it in its entirety on the ATP website.

But despite the wipeout on the scoreboard, Forlán had by no means embarrassed himself out there, and had provided a memorable night for the Uruguayan sporting public. Reporter Diego Dominguez of Uruguayan newspaper El Pais wrote that there were more than 90 journalists in attendance to cover Forlán stepping into a new arena.

“You have to have a certain amount of courage to play,” Forlán said in his press conference afterward. “Even though I was used to playing football in front of more than 60,000 people, that was a sport that I’ve mastered…when you have a sport that is new and obviously you are not used to it, it gets a little more complicated.”

But Forlán was proud, he said, of putting himself out there.

"I prepared myself so that at least I wouldn't have such a bad time and I could enjoy it,” he said. “And that's what I did.”

Vivek Ramaswamy and Diego Forlan (Photos by Gage Skidmore and Ailura)

A False Start in Columbus

5,444 miles north, a very different public figure had also teased a professional tennis debut this week.

“Playing my first ITF Futures qualifier round on Monday,” Republican presidential primary also-ran Vivek Ramaswamy told his three million Twitter followers and nearly two million Instagram followers on Saturday. “Finding a tiny bit of time to train, despite just a *few* other things going on right now.”

Ramaswamy accompanied the announcement with a video of himself hitting inside the venue of this week’s $25,000 ITF Futures event in Columbus, the Ty Tucker Tennis Center.

In the busy post-election fracas, Ramaswamy’s announcement gained a trace of notice. But when the entry list, draws, and the order of play came out for Monday in Columbus, Ramaswamy was nowhere to be found…