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. Passaro plays 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. He thus shares the record of winning both the singles and doubles titles at the same Mediterranean Games edition with Konstantinos Oikonomidis (2001 Tunis), Nicolás Almagro (2005 Almería), and Blaž Rola (2013 Mersin).

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.

Passaro qualified for the 2022 Next Generation ATP Finals. 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.

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. Next, he reached the third round for the first time at a Masters level, defeating 23rd seed Tallon Griekspoor.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

Performance timeline

Singles Current through the 2026 Chile Open.

Tournament20222023202420252026 Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAQ2Q22RQ21–1French OpenAQ1A1RA0–1WimbledonAQ1Q1Q10–0US OpenQ2Q1Q21R0–1Win–loss0–00–00–01–30–01–3ATP World Tour Masters 1000Indian WellsAQ2AAA0–0Miami OpenAAAAA0–0Monte-Carlo MastersAAAAA0–0Madrid OpenAQ1AAA0–0Italian Open1R1R3R3RA4–4Canadian OpenAAAA0–0Cincinnati OpenAAAA0–0Shanghai MastersAAAA0–0Paris MastersAAAA0–0Win–loss0–10–12–12–10–04–4

ATP Challenger Tour finals

Singles: 9 (3 titles, 6 runner-ups) LegendATP Challenger Tour (3–6)Finals by surfaceHard (–)Clay (3–6)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0–1Sanremo Challenger, ItalyChallengerClay Holger Rune1–6, 6–2, 4–6Loss0–2Forlì Open, ItalyChallengerClay Lorenzo Musetti6–2, 3–6, 2–6Loss0–3Aspria Tennis Cup, ItalyChallengerClay Federico Coria6–7(2–7), 4–6Win1–3Internazionali Città di Trieste, ItalyChallengerClay Zhang Zhizhen4–6, 6–3, 6–3Loss1–4Città di Como Challenger, ItalyChallengerClay Cedrik-Marcel Stebe6–7(2–7), 4–6Loss1–5Internazionali Città di Trieste, ItalyChallengerClay Hugo Gaston3–6, 7–5, 2–6Win2–5Piemonte Open, ItalyChallengerClay Lorenzo Musetti6–3, 7–5Win3–5AON Open, ItalyChallengerClay Jaume Munar7–5, 6–3Loss3–6Maia Challenger, PortugalChallengerClay (i) Damir Džumhur3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups) LegendATP Challenger Tour (0–3)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (0–2)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Internazionali Città di Vicenza, ItalyChallengerClay Matteo Gigante Francisco Comesaña Luciano Darderi3–6, 6–7(4–7)Loss0–2Tenerife Challenger II, SpainChallengerHard Matteo Gigante Christian Harrison Shintaro Mochizuki4–6, 3–6Loss0–3Layjet Open, AustriaChallengerClay Marco Bortolotti Hendrik Jebens Constantin Frantzen1–6, 2–6

ITF World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendITF WTT (3–2)Finals by surfaceHard (1–1)Clay (2–1)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0–1M15 Gubbio, ItalyWTTClay Gonzalo Villanueva5–7, 2–6Win1–1M15 Cairo, EgyptWTTClay Giacomo Dambrosi6–1, 6–4Win2–1M15 Xàtiva, SpainWTTClay Iñaki Montes de la Torre2–6, 6–1, 6–4Loss2–2M15 Monastir, TunisiaWTTHard Mattia Bellucci4–6, 5–7Win3–2M15 Monastir, TunisiaWTTHard Térence Atmane7–6(7–3), 6–2

Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up) LegendITF WTT (3–1)Finals by surfaceHard (–)Clay (3–1)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1M15 Murcia, SpainWTTClay Lorenzo Bocchi Eduard Esteve Lobato Álvaro López San Martín4–6, 4–6Win1–1M15 Cairo, EgyptWTTClay Daniele Capecchi Luke Johnson Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi7–5, 6–4Win2–1M15 Xàtiva, SpainWTTClay Imanol López Morillo Alberto Barroso Campos Benjamín Winter López6–4, 6–4Win3–1M15 Madrid, SpainWTTClay Carlos López Montagud Lucas Bouquet Stefan Micov6–0, 6–3

Wins against top 10 players Passaro has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Season 2025 Total Wins 1 1

#PlayerEventSurfaceScore20251. Grigor Dimitrov10Australian Open, AustraliaHard1R7–5, 2–1 104

References

External links