The UNIQLO Interview: Alberto Corradi
Announced as the winner of the 2021 UNIQLO Spirit Award in December, Alberto Corradi started his own wheelchair tennis journey in 1976, the same year as the sport we know today was founded in the USA.
However, Corradi’s initial involvement in wheelchair tennis was more of a passing acquaintance and far removed from the developments in the USA championed by Brad Parks and fellow players.
“I have always been a great tennis fan since I was a child and since the days of Adriano Panatta (1976 French Open men’s singles champion),” says Corradi. “In 1972, aged 11, I had a motorcycle accident and became a paraplegic, I immediately started rehabilitation in England, at Stoke Mandeville, where I was taught various sports, but not tennis. In 1976 I started playing tennis with my friends but I was basically just on the net doing volleys.”
Fast forward 20 years and Corradi’s journey gathered pace significantly as the then 37-year-old discovered what is now the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and began training for his new-found passion after his passing acquaintance with the sport as a teenager.
“In 1997 I became acquainted with the ITF wheelchair tennis circuit, and I started training and attending the ITF wheelchair tennis tournaments,” he adds. “My first tournament was at the Livorno ITF 1 in 1998. In 2006 I wore the Italian national team jersey for the first time, playing the World Team Cup in Brasilia. Back in Brazil, I then fulfilled my dream of participating in the Rio 2016 Paralympics.”
As a player Corradi’s won 13 titles, the biggest of his four singles titles being his first, after he lifted the ITF 2 Czech Open quad singles title in 2015. Later that year he also attained his career-best quad singles world ranking at No. 10 and has won nine doubles titles.
However, alongside his playing career he has two decades of experience as tournament director of the Sardinia Open and his success in this realm also led to Corradi and his team being rewarded with the responsibility of organising the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in both 2017 and 2021. He is rightfully very proud of what has been achieved with both events, with last year’s World Team Cup being the first since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The first edition of the Sardinia Open in 2000 was born thanks also to the collaboration of Claudio Rigolo and Alessandro Franchi, who organised the Livorno tournament I first played at,” says Corradi. “I have been the tournament director for about 20 years now and I have also had the pleasure of organising the World Team Cup in 2017 and 2021. It is thanks to the help of my team of volunteers who have been following me for many years that we were awarded with the UNIQLO Spirit Award in December.
“With my experience as an organiser and the fantastic team of volunteers, we have grown at the organisational level and for the Sardinia Open we were awarded the title of the best tournament in the world for the first time in 2004 and then we also won the same award in 2012 and 2013.”
“All this happened thanks to the sensitivity of the various municipal administrations of Alghero, who have always believed in the events I’ve organised and supported us, and thanks to the Region of Sardinia and to all the sponsors who support us every time. The city of Alghero has always welcomed all the athletes with great enthusiasm. The Alghero Tennis Club has always opened its doors to us, starting from the former President Andrea Sechi to the current President Fabio Fois.”
Corradi, whose home in Sassari is 30 minutes away from Alghero, the coastal town in the north west of Sardinia that has made the Sardinia Open its home over the last 20 years, has also seen his administrative skills and efforts rewarded in other ways, too.
“Today, after all these experiences, I was given the position of President of the Italian Wheelchair Tennis Committee by the Italian Tennis Federation,” he continues. “In this moment of pandemic everything is very difficult. My hope is that wheelchair tennis will have more and more visibility and that the media and the whole world can appreciate the gestures of the fantastic athletes on the wheelchair tennis circuit.”
In 2020, the Sardinia Open, alongside the majority of the last nine months of the 2020 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, was cancelled due to the pandemic. The 2022 Sardinia Open, set to take place at the end of September this year, will see the tournament celebrate its 22nd edition.
“The Sardinia Open has always given me great emotions,” says Corradi. “I still remember in 2004, when the confirmation came to say that we had won the award for the best tournament in the world (ITF Tournament of the Year), or in 2016 when we were chosen to organise the World Team Cup. I also remember with great emotion the parade of all the teams participating in the World Team Cup in 2017. At the port of Alghero there were 10,000 people cheering. These are indelible images in my memory.”
With Corradi having achieved so much, on and off court, and wheelchair tennis having provided him with such great memories, the difference the sport has made to his life is clear for all to see.
“Wheelchair tennis has made a big impact on my life,” he concludes. “Thanks to this sport I met many people and travelled the world, comparing myself with other players who then became dear friends. It has been a unique life experience that has enriched my person from all points of view.”