As Flavio Cobolli took to Court 12 on Thursday for his second-round qualifying match at Australian Open 2024, the 21-year-old Italian had extra motivation: earlier in the day one of his best friends won on this very same court.
The No.2 seed, Cobolli beat Benjamin Hassan 6-4 6-3 to join Giulio Zeppieri on the cusp of respective Australian Open main draw berths.
The two youngsters represent a surge in Italian men's tennis, with 25 players ranked inside the world's top 250. Four of them - including Cobolli, Zeppieri, Andrea Vavassori and Stefano Napolitano – are aiming to join four others (led by No.4 seed Jannik Sinner) already in the men's main draw.
It's a marked uptick for the Italians, who in 2014 had four men in the main draw of the AO and in 2004 had just two.
"The federation has done good work; we always have one coach and one physical trainer" with us, Cobolli explained to ausopen.com after his win. "And you see [it] in the results; it's going in a positive way."
"I went on the court with more motivation today because [Zeppieri] won; I wanted to be in the same position as him," he added. "We [Italians] are all together; we are friends."
It wasn't all flying colours for the tricolore, with four Italian men falling, including another young hope, No.13 seed Luca Nardi. He lost to Australian wildcard Dane Sweeny.
It was a busy day across Melbourne Park on a third day of the qualifying event, with players competing for a chance to be just a match-win away from the year's first Grand Slam.
Frenchman Hugo Gaston is the highest remaining seed aside from Cobolli, the No.4 set to face South Africa's Lloyd Harris, the former world No.31 who is still on the comeback trail from wrist surgery in late 2022.
Australia's John Millman bowed out in the second round, losing in straight sets to Alex Molcan. It marked the final event of Millman's career, the Australian having won a title in 2020 and reached world No.33. He stunned Roger Federer at the US Open in 2018, advancing to the quarterfinals.
MILLMAN: "I hope people enjoyed the journey"
Veteran David Goffin is hoping to qualify for a major for the first time in his career on Friday, as is history-maker Abdullah Shelbayh of Jordan, 2020 junior AO champ Harold Mayot of France and Sumit Nagal, the Indian journeyman who last qualified for a Grand Slam at the US Open back in 2019.
Sumit Nagal: 'Everyone works hard at this level'
Qualifying often brings to light the many toiling stories of tennis' lower levels, including that of Nagal, the 26-year-old who reached world No.122 in August 2020.
But a hip injury ended his 2021 season prematurely, and he missed six months into mid-2022, seeing his ranking plummet to outside the world top 550. He's been on the slow, arduous climb back in the 18 months since.
"The last years were tough for me," Nagal said after a 6-3 6-2 win over Australian wildcard Edward Winter. "There's been a lot of stop, start, stop, start. Last year I got back into the rhythm, winning [two] challengers, making two more finals.
"Everyone works hard at this level."
Before he left Kia Arena after his win over Winter, Nagal was greeted by a bevy of fans, many of them Indian supporters. Nagal is the lone Indian male ranked inside the world's top 400, and tends to draw a crowd of Indians - both locals and expats - wherever he plays.
"There's a lot of Indians in Melbourne," he added with a laugh. "I'm very lucky to have them behind me here. And... if you're reading this, come support me [on Friday]."