Former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan suffered a comprehensive 1-6 2-6 doubles defeat on his first ATP tennis appearance in his native Uruguay.
The 45-year-old has dabbled in competitive tennis since the summer of 2023 and was awarded a wild card for the Uruguay Open on the Challenger Tour, which is the second-highest level of professional tennis below the ATP Tour.
Forlan partnered up with the Argentine Federico Coria - a former top-50 player in singles - to take on Bolivian pair Boris Arias and Federico Zeballos, who were seeded fourth for the doubles tournament.
After respective service holds to start the highly-anticipated match, Forlan and Coria lost five games on the spin as their Bolivian opponents quickly wrapped up the first set, concluding the opener with back-to-back love holds.
Forlan and Coria also held their nerve at the beginning of the second set before being broken in the third game by Arias and Zeballos, who then repeated their trick in the second for a 5-2 advantage.
Forlan comprehensively beaten on ATP tennis debut
Diego Forlan at the net! 💯#ATPChallenger | @DiegoForlan7 pic.twitter.com/p24PQgTVxJ
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) November 14, 2024
Forlan and Coria managed to save two match points, but the dominant Arias and Zeballos made no mistake on their third attempt to sail into the second round in just 47 minutes.
The ex-Uruguay striker played tennis as well as football in his youth before deciding to focus on the latter, in which he scored 274 goals in 700 appearances at club level from 1998 to 2018.
Forlan is perhaps best known for his time at Old Trafford from 2002 to 2004, where he netted 17 goals in 98 appearances while winning one Premier League and one FA Cup under Sir Alex Ferguson.
The 45-year-old also represented Atletico Madrid, Villarreal and Inter Milan during a well-travelled career, while netting 36 goals in 112 appearances for the Uruguay national team.
The zenith of Forlan's football career came at the 2010 World Cup, where he was one of four players to score a tournament-high five goals and also took home the Golden Ball as the competition's best player.
Ben Knapton
