Luca Nardi’s Racquet – Player Profile

Luca Nardi is an up and coming young Italian player who recently made the front-page for defeating Novak Djokovic in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000.

Luca Nardi’s Tennis Racquet

Luca Nardi’s racquet is a Yonex Ezone 98 strung with Luxilon Alu Power at around 24/23 kg (tensions vary depending on the conditions). The Japanese brand is definitely taking market share among the top 100 players on the ATP and WTA Tours; there are loads of especially Ezones and VCOREs in this player group.

We don’t know Luca Nardi’s racquet specs, so if you do please comment below. I am sure there is some racquet customization involved.

More on Luca Nardi

Luca was born in Pesaro, a city not as many will be familiar with as they are with probably its most illustrious citizens, Valentino Rossi. And just like Valentino, Luca’s potent forehand, two-handed backhand and still-to-be-perfectioned ability to win the decisive points, seem destined to greatness.

In 2018, Luca Nardi became the youngest Italian ever to earn an ATP point, by reaching a Future quarter-finals in Sassuolo (Italy) at the age of 14 years and 10 months old. After his first win in an ATP 500 in October 2022, defeating Schevchenko in Astana, 2023 did not start very well for Luca, who lost five matches in a row. But then he lands in India and reaches the quarter-finals in Bengaluru and the final in Pune, losing in both cases to Max Purcell, then ranked 116.

From there Nardi seems to lose again its magic and is unable to win more than two matches in a row in Challengers until he wins the tournament in Porto, defeating the local champion Joao Sousa (352).

Then it’s rollercoaster time again until October, when he reaches the semis in the Bratislava Challenger in Slovakia and wins the Matsuyama Challenger in Japan, having the better hand of yet another local champion, Taro Daniel (86). The Japan campaign seems to show that Luca has finally found consistency, he makes the semis the following week in Kobe, but a rather disappointing appearance at the Jeddah Next Gen brings back well known patterns.

New Coach Giorgio Galimberti

And that’s when Luca Nardi decides to change his coach, hiring Giorgio Galimberti, an Italian former junior world number 2 who, later on, though never made it into the top 100. Probably more important than that, though thanks to Galimberti, Luca he’s able to join Jannik Sinner and train with him during the off-season in Alicante (Spain).

That will reflect on Nardi’s 2024 performance so far. Final in Chennai (India) in early February; round of 16 in Indian Wells, after defeating Novak Djokovic (then world no 1), and another victory in a Challenger, this time at home in Naples (his father’s birthplace). 

As we publish this piece, Luca Nardi has reached the main draw in Monte Carlo and has just started his match versus Felix Auger-Aliassime. Whatever the result, it appears clear that Luca has all the skills needed to play against some of the best tennis players on the world stage. His tennis is far from complete, his serve especially. His ability, or rather lack thereof, of winning the decisive points is probably his biggest weakness at the moment.

Continuity, bringing home wins but also good performances week after week, one of the most overlooked aspects of a repetitive and mental sport like tennis, is yet to be found. But rest assured that, with his impressive stats of 10 finals won out of 12 played in Challenger and Futures, we are going to hear more about Luca Nardi.

You can follow Luca Nardi on Instagram at luca__nardi.