The day football legend Paolo Maldini tried his hand at professional tennis

Did you know that football legend Paolo Maldini once played professional tennis? Michael Graham tells the story.
Paolo Maldini’s sporting achievements are well documented. The word ‘legend’ is overused in society in general these days, but sport is perhaps the greatest culprit of all.
With Maldini, though, you can legitimately make a case for the word being insufficient to cover his legacy.
Twenty four years at the very top with AC Milan, and only AC Milan, 126 international caps for Italy, seven Serie A titles, five Champions Leagues/European Cups, as well as too many individual honours and awards to mention.
But after a career like that, and your 50s looming, where do you go from there? Well, if you’re Paolo Maldini, it was tennis.
Of course, he was never going to challenge Roger Federer or threaten to bother the centre-court schedulers at Wimbledon. He was 48 years old, and just played once a week with his coach at Harbour Club Milano.
In June 2017, on the day of Maldini’s 49th birthday, in fact, that venue was due to host the Aspria Tennis Cup, an ATP Challenger tour event, although admittedly very much a second tier one.
The club held a tournament to grant club members a spot in the tournament and Maldini, with his coach, former world number 975 Stefano Landonio, won it.
“Paolo’s gifted with a good serve in addition to some decent shots,” Landonio told Tennis Italiano before the event.
“He’s also improving his volleys and while he may not be catching the eye in any particular part of his game, he does not have any weaknesses either.
“Since he only started playing five or six years ago, there are some deficits in terms of technique. If he’d started working on his technique earlier, then who knows?
“Certainly in view of his background, he’s got extraordinary mental and physical strength. Psychologically, he never suffers in the slightest in delicate situations – he’s really strong.”
Alas, and probably predictably, it wasn’t meant to be. There would be no fairytale run to the latter stages of the tournament.
Maldini and Landonio were beaten 6-1, 6-1 by Poland’s Tomasz Bednarek and Dutchman David Pel, a former top-50 ranked doubles pairing, in the first round and lasted just 41 minutes as a pairing in professional tennis.
“It was like writing a poem after studying years of maths,” Maldini brilliantly quipped afterwards.
“We tried to enjoy the moment, also because I didn’t expect I’d be able to experience something like this at the age of 49. Ironically, on the very first point of the match I pulled a muscle.
“It was a unique and unrepeatable experience, I have lived it as a game and there will be no other experience like this. We could have played better on a few points, but no problem. It could have ended 6-0 6-3, we lost 6-1 6-1 and that’s fine.”
So what happened next? Was there ever any hope of Maldini being one of those brilliant success-stories about athletes who switch sports and catch the bug?
Sadly not, even after the idea of the over-50s tour was suggested to him.
“I would say no,” he explained. “Especially because I don’t train like an ex-professional.
“I play once a week, I come from another sport, I have physical problems with my knees and a series of limitations due to the inevitable wear-and-tear caused by football. Also, I don’t have much time available.”
However, he clearly had learned something from his professional tennis experience: when you lose, blame the surface!
Maldini plays weekly on the Harbour Club Milano’s indoor court, where as the tournament was played on their clay courts. He prefers the former.
“(That‘s) where I can show my best qualities,“ he said. ”On carpet there’s no time to think, it’s my favourite surface.
“I like to play aggressive. Red clay forces me to play long rallies, but in tennis, honestly, I have little patience.”
Latest
-
Tennis News
Roger Federer sends his fans into a frenzy with Twitter post ahead of his return to action
Roger Federer fans are counting down to his return to action in Doha next week and his tweet teasing his return instantly became a big hit.
-
Tennis News
Iga Swiatek’s perfect week as she claims her second WTA title
Iga Swiatek won her second career WTA title with victory over Belinda Bencic in the final of the Adelaide International.
-
News
Jamie Murray says quarantine threat on tour means players must be ready to adapt
The doubles specialist plans to travel to tournaments in Mexico and Miami next month without knowing what to expect on arrival.
-
Tennis News
Battle of the Brits event is back and this time with spectators
The Battle of the Brits events were a huge success during the Covid-19 crisis and now they are set to return with spectators.
-
Tennis Features
The only way is up for Naomi Osaka as she looks to replicate hard-court success on clay and grass
Oli Jefford on the world being Naomi Osaka’s oyster.
-
Kevin Palmer
Britain’s strength in depth in doubles highlights quality of structure
British tennis may be wondering who can replace Andy Murray, but they have a very different story to tell in the doubles arena.
-
Tennis News
Rafael Nadal pulls out of his next event due to ‘ongoing’ back problem
Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the ABN…
-
Tennis News
Lleyton Hewitt to be inducted into International Tennis Hall Of Fame
Former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt is the latest player who will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
-
Tennis Features
Five of the best men’s matches at the Australian Open featuring Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Rafael Nadal, and more
The matches that made us sit up and take note.
-
Australian Open
Five of the best women’s matches at Australian Open featuring Naomi Osaka vs Garbine Muguruza, and more
Five of the best women’s singles matches at the 2021 Aus Open.