How 'The Shark' Comesana has joined Nalbandian in Argentine history
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-comesana/c0df/overview'Francisco Comesana/a defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ugo-humbert/hh26/overview'Ugo Humbert/a, the No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings, on Wednesday and then fell on his back in celebration. But he quickly bounced back up, for two good reasons./pp"The court was really hot!" he explained with a laugh after his victory on a day that featured temperatures of nearly 40-degrees Celsius. The second reason he returned to his feet was because of his mother, Adela./p
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Comesana's second-round triumph in his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a debut was the perfect birthday gift to his mother. He shouted lsquo;Happy birthday!rsquo; before embracing Humbert at net. Then, Comesana headed to the stands on Court No. 7 and gave Adela a hug./p
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ldquo;I donrsquo;t think itrsquo;s sunk in yet that I beat the World No. 17,rdquo; Comesana said in Spanish. ldquo;Irsquo;m still thinking about my motherrsquo;s emotional birthday. Itrsquo;s really amazing that we can experience this as a family. After suffering so much, wersquo;re all really happy.rdquo;/p
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In July, the Argentine reached the third round at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a, where he opened the tournament by upsetting sixth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a. Now he is back in the Round of 32, in only his second major./p
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Comesana is the second Argentine male, and the first since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-nalbandian/n301/overview'David Nalbandian/a, to reach the third round in his first appearances at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a and the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a./p
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Meanwhile, he is doing it all with his family by his side in New York. Joining him at Flushing Meadows are Adela and father Agustin, as well as Comesanarsquo;s brother Valentin./p
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The family presence could lead to added pressure, but Comesana believes that there is nothing more satisfactory than playing the tennis of his life in front of them at a tournament of this magnitude./p
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ldquo;Itrsquo;s difficult when your family is at the tournament. Itrsquo;s the first time itrsquo;s happened to me and Irsquo;m happy that they can enjoy watching me compete, but itrsquo;s not easy because I know that they get very emotional and nervous. All that emotion can take its toll, so I try not to see them when Irsquo;m competing,rdquo; Comesana said./p
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Playing for his family in the stands, but also putting them out of his mind has been the key to Comesanarsquo;s great week, which has also included a win against Swiss lefty a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/dominic-stricker/s0la/overview'Dominic Stricker/a in the first round. During Comesanarsquo;s second-round match, during which he dropped the opening set, he preferred to focus his attention on the gaze of his coach, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-gutierrez/g522/overview'Sebastian Gutierrez/a, and the on-court advice he was offering./pp
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ldquo;Itrsquo;s a little crazy what wersquo;ve been working on with lsquo;Gutirsquo;. He tells me he is confident and he believes that I belong here at this level. Hersquo;s always on me to believe it more myself,rdquo; Comesana said. ldquo;Today at the start of the match it was difficult, but he was saying: lsquo;Keep going, trust yourself.rsquo;rdquo;/p
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If there are moments of not believing in himself, the No. 108 in the PIF ATP Rankings quickly reverses such thinking./p
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ldquo;The serve has always been one of my strengths, it helped me a lot at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. Against Humbert, at the start, it wasnrsquo;t. But I started to believe, telling myself that itrsquo;s my weapon. Then it started to win me a lot of points and I started to be very aggressive,rdquo; Comesana said./p
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By taking on his coachrsquo;s advice, believing that he belongs in this category, Comesana has started to soar. The newfound belief makes Comesana even more of a danger to his opponents, while also doing justice to his nickname lsquo;El Tiburonrsquo;, translated as, lsquo;The Sharkrsquo;./p
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ldquo;Irsquo;m liking it more and more when they call me that because the shark is an intimidating animal,rdquo; Comesana said with a laugh./p
pimg src="/-/media/images/news/2024/08/30/15/38/comesana-us-open-shark-feature.jpg" style="width:100%" alt="a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-comesana/c0df/overview'Francisco Comesana/a is nicknamed, 'The Shark'." /br/emsupa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-comesana/c0df/overview'Francisco Comesana/a is nicknamed, 'The Shark'. Credit: Buenos Aires Challenger/sup/em
/p
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The nickname is a homage to Argentina's football club Aldosivi, which boasts a shark on its shield. Comesana, who first cracked the Top 100 in April, is an Aldosivi supporter./p
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Comesana will need to call on the intimidating spirit of the shark for his next clash against home favourite a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a, No. 12 in the PIF ATP Rankings./p
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ldquo;It will be a match to keep battling and competing at 100 per cent, but also one to enjoy because Irsquo;m sure Irsquo;ll get a big court,rdquo; Comesana said. ldquo;Irsquo;m going to go out to give my best.rdquo;/p
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His familyrsquo;s vacation plans, which includes some tourism around Manhattan, will remain on hold because lsquo;The Sharkrsquo; is still in action./p
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ldquo;I was clear when I told them to come to New York, that I wasnrsquo;t coming here for a holiday!rdquo; Comesana said./p
pemEditor's note: This story was translated from a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/es" target="_blank"ATPTour.com/es/a./em/p
p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p