Francesco Passaro

Francesco Passaro[1]
Passaro at the 2023 French Open
Country (sports) Italy
ResidencePerugia, Italy
Born (2001-01-07) 7 January 2001
Perugia, Italy
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro2019
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
CoachRoberto Tarpani
Prize moneyUS $1,449,430
Singles
Career record12–23
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 89 (17 February 2025)
Current rankingNo. 143 (16 March 2026)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open2R (2025)
French Open1R (2025)
WimbledonQ1 (2023, 2024, 2025)
US Open1R (2025)
Doubles
Career record0–5
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 256 (20 February 2023)
Current rankingNo. 680 (16 March 2026)
Team competitions
Medal record
Mediterranean Games
2022 Oran Men's Singles
2022 Oran Men's Doubles
Last updated on: 16 March 2026.

Francesco Passaro (born 7 January 2001) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 89 achieved on 17 February 2025 and a doubles ranking of No. 256, reached on 20 February 2023.[2]

Passaro plays mostly on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he has won three titles in singles.

Career

2021: ATP debut

In May, Passaro made his ATP main draw debut at the Emilia-Romagna Open after receiving a wildcard for the doubles main draw.

2022–23: Masters debut, NextGen Finals and top 150 debuts

In April 2022, playing as a qualifier, Passaro reached his first ATP Challenger final at the Sanremo Challenger, where he was defeated by top-seed Holger Rune in three sets.

The next month, he made his Masters debut at the Italian Open in Rome as a wildcard.

At the Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria, Passaro won the gold medal in men's singles and, with Matteo Arnaldi, the gold medal in men's doubles.[3] He thus shares the record of winning both the singles and doubles titles at the same Mediterranean Games edition with Konstantinos Oikonomidis (2001 Tunis),[4] Nicolás Almagro (2005 Almería),[5] and Blaž Rola (2013 Mersin).[6]

Passaro won his first Challenger title in July 2022 at the Internazionali di Trieste. With this trophy, he became the 20th #NextGenATP winner that season. As a result, he entered top 150, with a singles ranking of world No. 144.[7][2]

Passaro qualified for the 2022 Next Generation ATP Finals.[8] He reached a career high ranking of No. 108 on 13 February 2023.

2024–25: First Masters third round, Major & top 100 debuts

Passaro received a wildcard for the Chile Open in Santiago. He also entered the main draw at the Napoli Cup, this time as an alternate, and reached the semifinals. As a result, he returned to the top 200 in the rankings on 1 April 2024.[2]

After reaching the main draw of his home Masters, the Italian Open, having received a wildcard for the qualifying competition, he defeated Arthur Rinderknech for his first Masters main draw win.[9] Next, he reached the third round for the first time at a Masters level, defeating 23rd seed Tallon Griekspoor.[10]

Following lifting his second title at the 2024 Turin Challenger as a wildcard, with a win over top seed Lorenzo Musetti in the final, Passaro returned to the top 150 in the rankings climbing more than 100 positions back in the rankings on 20 May 2024. He became the first player since Robin Soderling in 2009 (Sunrise) to defeat five Top 100 players en route to a Challenger trophy.[11][12] A month later, he returned to the top 130 on 17 June 2024. After winning the Genoa Challenger, he returned to the top 110 at a new career-high of No. 106 on 9 September 2024.[2]

Passaro made his Grand Slam main draw debut at the 2025 Australian Open as a lucky loser after the withdrawal of his compatriot Fabio Fognini.[13] He recorded his first Grand Slam win and first top-20 win, following the retirement of tenth seed Grigor Dimitrov due to a hip injury, and moved into the top 100 in the singles rankings at world No. 90 on 27 January 2025.[14][15] He again defeated Dimitrov, his second top-20 win, at the 2025 Italian Open, to reach back-to-back third rounds at his home Masters.[16][17]

Performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Singles

Current through the 2026 Chile Open.

Tournament 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A Q2 Q2 2R 1–1
French Open A Q1 A 1R 0–1
Wimbledon A Q1 Q1 Q1 0–0
US Open Q2 Q1 Q2 1R 0–1
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 1–3 0–0 1–3
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Open A Q2 A A 0–0
Miami Open A A A A 0–0
Monte-Carlo Masters A A A A 0–0
Madrid Open A Q1 A A 0–0
Italian Open 1R 1R 3R 3R 4–4
Canadian Open A A A A 0–0
Cincinnati Open A A A A 0–0
Shanghai Masters A A A A 0–0
Paris Masters A A A A 0–0
Win–loss 0–1 0–1 2–1 2–1 0–0 4–4

ATP Challenger Tour finals

Singles: 9 (3 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Legend
ATP Challenger Tour (3–6)
Finals by surface
Hard (–)
Clay (3–6)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Apr 2022 Sanremo Challenger, Italy Challenger Clay Holger Rune 1–6, 6–2, 4–6
Loss 0–2 Jun 2022 Forlì Open, Italy Challenger Clay Lorenzo Musetti 6–2, 3–6, 2–6
Loss 0–3 Jun 2022 Aspria Tennis Cup, Italy Challenger Clay Federico Coria 6–7(2–7), 4–6
Win 1–3 Jul 2022 Internazionali Città di Trieste, Italy Challenger Clay Zhang Zhizhen 4–6, 6–3, 6–3
Loss 1–4 Sep 2022 Città di Como Challenger, Italy Challenger Clay Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6–7(2–7), 4–6
Loss 1–5 Jul 2023 Internazionali Città di Trieste, Italy Challenger Clay Hugo Gaston 3–6, 7–5, 2–6
Win 2–5 May 2024 Piemonte Open, Italy Challenger Clay Lorenzo Musetti 6–3, 7–5
Win 3–5 Sep 2024 AON Open, Italy Challenger Clay Jaume Munar 7–5, 6–3
Loss 3–6 Nov 2024 Maia Challenger, Portugal Challenger Clay (i) Damir Džumhur 3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Legend
ATP Challenger Tour (0–3)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–1)
Clay (0–2)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 May 2022 Internazionali Città di Vicenza, Italy Challenger Clay Matteo Gigante Francisco Comesaña
Luciano Darderi
3–6, 6–7(4–7)
Loss 0–2 Feb 2023 Tenerife Challenger II, Spain Challenger Hard Matteo Gigante Christian Harrison
Shintaro Mochizuki
4–6, 3–6
Loss 0–3 Sep 2023 Layjet Open, Austria Challenger Clay Marco Bortolotti Hendrik Jebens
Constantin Frantzen
1–6, 2–6

ITF World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Legend
ITF WTT (3–2)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–1)
Clay (2–1)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Jul 2019 M15 Gubbio, Italy WTT Clay Gonzalo Villanueva 5–7, 2–6
Win 1–1 Apr 2021 M15 Cairo, Egypt WTT Clay Giacomo Dambrosi 6–1, 6–4
Win 2–1 Aug 2021 M15 Xàtiva, Spain WTT Clay Iñaki Montes de la Torre 2–6, 6–1, 6–4
Loss 2–2 Jan 2022 M15 Monastir, Tunisia WTT Hard Mattia Bellucci 4–6, 5–7
Win 3–2 Feb 2022 M15 Monastir, Tunisia WTT Hard Térence Atmane 7–6(7–3), 6–2

Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Legend
ITF WTT (3–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (–)
Clay (3–1)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Mar 2019 M15 Murcia, Spain WTT Clay Lorenzo Bocchi Eduard Esteve Lobato
Álvaro López San Martín
4–6, 4–6
Win 1–1 Apr 2021 M15 Cairo, Egypt WTT Clay Daniele Capecchi Luke Johnson
Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi
7–5, 6–4
Win 2–1 Aug 2021 M15 Xàtiva, Spain WTT Clay Imanol López Morillo Alberto Barroso Campos
Benjamín Winter López
6–4, 6–4
Win 3–1 Oct 2021 M15 Madrid, Spain WTT Clay Carlos López Montagud Lucas Bouquet
Stefan Micov
6–0, 6–3

Wins against top 10 players

  • Passaro has a 1–0 record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.[18]
Season 2025 Total
Wins 1 1
# Player Rk Event Surface Rd Score Rk Ref
2025
1. Grigor Dimitrov 10 Australian Open, Australia Hard 1R 7–5, 2–1 ret. 104 [19]
  • Key: (Rk) first use, opponent rank; (Rd) round; (Rk) 2nd use, player rank; (Ref) reference; (F) final; (SF) semifinal; (QF) quarterfinal; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage

References

  1. ^ "Francesco Passaro".
  2. ^ a b c d "Francesco Passaro | Ranking | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour.
  3. ^ "Results Book – Tennis" (PDF). Oran 2022 / Microplus. 2 July 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  4. ^ "Konstantinos Oikonomidis". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 September 2025. Listed in Olympians Who Won a Medal at the Mediterranean Games (2–0–0 2001 Tunis TEN gold: singles and doubles).
  5. ^ "Nicolás Almagro". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 September 2025. Listed in Olympians Who Won a Medal at the Mediterranean Games (2–0–0 2005 Almería TEN gold: singles and doubles).
  6. ^ "The penultimate day of the Games in Mersin again brings success to Slovenia". Slovenian Olympic Committee. 29 June 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2025. Blaž Rola won another gold … after winning the doubles with Tomislav Ternar.
  7. ^ "Wu Yibing Surges to Career High After Indianapolis Challenger Title | ATP Tour | Tennis".
  8. ^ "Passaro-next-gen-atp-finals-2022-qualification | Next Gen ATP Finals | Tennis".
  9. ^ @TennisTV (May 9, 2024). "Incredible scenes 😱Francesco Passaro comes from a set and 5-2 down to overcome Rinderknech in Rome!#IBI24" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  10. ^ "Rome Masters: Qualifier Passaro reaches third round". 10 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Fils finishes 'perfect week' with Bordeaux Challenger title; Passaro joins Soderling in slice of Challenger history". 19 May 2024.
  12. ^ "Challenger Q2: #NextGenATP teens Schwaerzler, Debru shine". ATPTour. 17 July 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  13. ^ "Fognini withdraws from the Australian Open replaced by Passaro". 13 January 2025.
  14. ^ "Men's wrap: Tiafoe digs deep, Dimitrov forced out". 13 January 2025.
  15. ^ "How Passaro went from 'head like fire' to patience & composure". 27 January 2025.
  16. ^ @OptaAce (May 9, 2025). "1 - Since the ATP rankings were first published in 1973, Francesco Passaro has become the first player to win his first two matches vs ATP top 20 players, and against the same opponent. Deja-vu. #IBI25 @InteBNLdItalia @atptour @ATPMediaInfo" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  17. ^ @ATPTour (May 9, 2025). "There's no place like home ❤️🏡Italian wild card Francesco Passaro catches lightning in a bottle to stun Dimitrov 7-5 6-3! @InteBNLdItalia #IBI25" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  18. ^ "Francesco Passaro Match Results, Splits, and Analysis". Tennis Abstract. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
  19. ^ Gill, Aarav Singh (13 January 2025). "Heartbreaking Scenes as Former Australian Open Semi-Finalist Retires Mid-Match Due to Injury". EssentiallySports. Retrieved 16 January 2025.