World no.341 Andrea Collarini is one of those players that is used to battling in challengers all over the world. Unfortunately, the Argentinian had a rather unpleasant experience while playing the Challenger 35 in Sarasota where he was robbed during the tournament.
How Collarini was robbed
The 27-year-old won a good match against Bjorn Fratangelo, but when he went to ask for a physio he had a rather bad surprise. This is what happened according to Collarini’s post on Twitter.
“After winning my 3rd round match at the Sarasota Challenger, USA, I head to the locker room to shower. I leave for 2 minutes to ask for an appointment with the physio.
When I return, I see a man (around 50 years old, dark short hair with a cap and white shirt) taking clothes from my bag.
In shock, I try to stop him, and he returns what he was taking out at that moment (two dirty socks and some wristbands).
I realize that my bag is all messed up and meanwhile he runs away.
1. try to chase him but unfortunately the parking lot was next door and he was probably already in his car. (All this happened in a private neighborhood).
The person who stole me had a tournament badge, but nobody knew him. Some players told me that he asked for photos and he had a Portuguese accent.
He stole me:
3 rackets (because the 2 remaining ones I luckily had in the car)
2. match shirts 2 match shorts 2 caps
2 pairs of stocks
A bag with 25 wristbands, which I always have for training and matches.
I went to ask for help from the organization of the tournament, and the only measure they took was to walk through the courts, as if by doing so they would find the thief. I asked them to close the country club’s exit and verify the belongings of the people who were leaving, but nobody did anything.
Additionally, I made the police report.
The locker room did not have security and therefore anyone who was in the club could access. It also had security cameras outside, which would have allowed identifying the thief, but they were turned off…
Nobody in the organization took responsibility of what happened, although they are in charge of providing security to players in-site and and specially, of providing a secure locker room, with an entrance strictly monitored.
Besides the emotional impact that implied having to continue to play in an insecure environment where I had this unfortunate episode, I was left with only 2 rackets, which affected my remaining training and matches, and I will continue to be affected the rest of the tour.
It is a shame that these things happen in professional tournaments, which could be avoided by complying with the required security established in the ATP rulebook.”
The picture of the thief
Then Collarini published the pictures of the Thief hoping to find him.
This is the person who stole my things. These images are from the video (livestream) of my match vs Fratangelo. Please let me know if you recognize him. pic.twitter.com/cuIr6W8XSS
— Andrea Collarini (@andreacollarini) April 21, 2019
Ésta persona es la que me robó. Estas imágenes son del vídeo de “livestream” del partido vs Fratangelo. pic.twitter.com/087WLbaJsU
— Andrea Collarini (@andreacollarini) April 21, 2019