Grandma, coffee and brother?s driving help Trungelliti to Roland Garros

PARIS: Argentinian Marco Trungelliti said it “wasn’t a big deal” to drive for 10 hours in order to play at the French Open, after a family roadtrip helped him take the eighth lucky loser’s spot and beat Bernard Tomic on Monday.The world number 190 embarked on a 1,000km journey from Barcelona to Paris on Sunday, taking to the court just 11 hours after arriving at Roland Garros and promptly seeing off Tomic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.“For us, I mean, in Argentina, if you’re not living in Buenos Aires, then 1,000km is like nothing. You make 1,000km and there is no city between,” said Trungelliti, whose return to France has already made him an extra 58,000 euros ($67,000) in prize money.“So it wasn’t a big deal for us. We got used to it, and then, yeah, we had highway, so it’s perfect.“(In) Argentina, there is one (motorway) — we call it the Ruta, it’s just one way and the other one (lane) is coming against you. So you never know if you’re going to be alive after two hours driving.”The 28-year-old had already returned to his base in Barcelona after losing in qualifying last week, but a spate of withdrawals saw a possible place in the main draw open up.With no qualifying losers still in Paris, Trungelliti took his chance and drove back to the French capital with his mother, grandmother and brother.He explained: “My coach told me, ‘take a look, Safwat, the Egyptian who played yesterday, he’s playing right now, so maybe take a look. Ask if you are going to get in or whatever’.“So I ask, and then somebody told me that it was the first alternate. So actually, my grandma was in the shower and I told her, ‘okay, we go to Paris’.”He arrived in Paris on Sunday, saying his brother did the bulk of the driving while he drank coffee.Trungelliti joked that his 89-year-old grandma, who had been expecting to see the sights in Barcelona, struggled to follow his first-round win on Court Nine.“She has no idea what tennis is, really. She has no idea how to count it.“And actually, she told me that she didn’t know that it was the end of the match until everybody was clapping.”Trungelliti showed no signs of fatigue, as he reached the second round for the third consecutive year and will next face Italian Marco Cecchinato.

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