Mexico’s Rodrigo Pacheco reaches No. 1 in the ITF Junior World Ranking
Mexico City, May 29 – Mexican Rodrigo Pacheco, who recently turned 18 years old, became the No. 1 in the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) junior world ranking on Monday, an achievement never before reached by a Mexican player.
Pacheco, who was born on April 25, 2005, reached the top spot in the world junior tennis ranking after a brilliant performance at the Bonfiglio Trophy in Milan, Italy, where he won the tournament in singles and doubles.
For the Mexican junior, whom Grupo Mextenis has supported in the last two years with invitations to its tournaments in Acapulco and Los Cabos, 2023 will be unforgettable and transcendental.
After the junior Australian Open, Pacheco Mendez reached fourth place in the ITF junior ranking and almost a month later he made his debut in a professional ATP 500 tournament at the age of 17 when he played the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC.
In this event, despite being eliminated in the first round by Australian Alex De Miñaur, the eventual champion, Pacheco showed his good tennis. In 2022 Pacheco was invited by Mextenis to play the qualy at the Acapulco Open 500 and also received a wilcard to play at the ATP 250 in Los Cabos, which this year became the Mifel Tenis Open by Telcel Oppo and where it is possible that he will attend.
In addition, at the beginning of April, Pacheco played in singles and doubles in the first edition of the Leon Open presented by Mifel, an ATP 75 Challenger Tour tournament, new property of Mextenis.
THE DOUBLE IN MILAN
In his time in Milan, the Mexican defeated on Sunday the American Cooper Williams by 6-4, 7-5 in the singles final, while on Saturday in doubles, together with the Russian Yaroslav Demin, they defeated the Italian Federico Cina and the Japanese Rei Sakamoto by 6-3, 6-3.
Sunday’s win in singles brought 500 points awarded by the Grade A tournament to the champion and with that figure on Monday Pacheco appeared with a total of 2,334.5 points, ahead of Alexander Blockx, current Australian Open champion, with 2,087 points and Gilles Arnaud, with 1,900 points, both from Belgium.
This performance gives him confidence to face the junior Roland Garros, which, he has said, will be his last tournament as a junior to give way to his stage as a professional tennis player.
Pacheco reached the pinnacle of junior tennis for Mexico, although there were players who came close before. In 1986 Eduardo Velez became number two in the world after winning the Wimbledon Junior Tournament, while other players such as Cesar Ramirez and Oliver Fernandez, reached as high as number 3 in the ITF.
The Bonfiglio Trophy is considered one of the five most important tournaments within the ITF junior circuit. According to its official website, it is on the same level as the Australian Open (Melbourne), Roland Garros (Paris), Wimbledon (London), US Open (New York) and Orange Bowl (Miami).