ATP Tour

Tabilo: From doubting everything to 'unbelievable' 2026

Last September, Alejandro Tabilo arrived at the Guangzhou ATP Challenger event at a low. The Chilean, fresh off a first-round loss at the US Open to Alexander Zverev, was the No. 125 player in the PIF ATP Rankings and battling to recover from an injury-filled season.

Tabilo had begun feeling pain in his left wrist in Miami, which he played through. The lefty upset Novak Djokovic in Monte-Carlo, but the pain was too tough and through a test learned he almost suffered a stress fracture.

Then there was a five-centimetre tear in his abdomen after Roland Garros and a twisted ankle in Winston-Salem. It was a difficult time for Tabilo, who confided in his girlfriend, Malena De Lorenzo.

“I remember that at the US Open last year, he told me, ‘I know that the results are not coming right now, but I feel that something good will happen’,” she recalled. “Because he felt really good playing. But the results were not arriving.”

After reaching the Guangzhou final, Tabilo arrived in Chengdu for qualifying at the ATP 250 event. On the same day he landed, he advanced to the second round. And after beating Lloyd Harris in a final-set tie-break to reach the main draw, everything changed.

By the end of the week, Tabilo was standing tall with a championship victory against then-World No. 9 Lorenzo Musetti and his third ATP Tour trophy.

“I was still thinking about if I was able to save the year, basically,” Tabilo told ATPTour.com. “Chengdu really, really gave me a second life. It was a crucial part of the year and I was able to get through that. But yeah, I mean, if we didn't do that, I think I would have doubted a little bit more.”

After championship point, Tabilo celebrated with his team and De Lorenzo ran over to him. “It was unbelievable, and just being able to hug everybody that was there, that saw the whole process, it was a crazy feeling,” he added, before reflecting on his big turnaround.

“In that moment, you just doubt everything. You doubt everything you're doing — if you're doing stuff right, what else I can do to not get those injuries and just mentally battling back and just working on everything that I need to get stronger.”

It was a crest in a series of waves that is a tennis career. Just a year earlier, he had won two tour-level titles and reached a career-high World No. 19.

“He had a really good 2024,” De Lorenzo said. “So then trying to do the same in 2025, defending all those points and having a year with a lot of injuries and not a good amount of matches to have good confidence, it was really difficult for him.”

But it is not in Tabilo’s personality to go down without a battle. The Chilean continued working hard, biding his time. And since Chengdu, he has rocketed back towards the top of the sport.

From reaching the Rio de Janeiro final to making the fourth round at Roland Garros, he thrived on clay. But Tabilo also upset Ben Shelton in Washington, showing his prowess on hard courts. No matter what, he has made his opponents work hard.

“On court, I like to think that I'm a big fighter,” Tabilo said. “Never going to try and give a match for [a] loss. I always want to think I have a chance of winning. So I want to keep fighting and showing that even if I look like I'm down, I'm still there and battling.”

That was the case with the injuries, too. One year ago, Tabilo falling to Zverev in New York came at a low moment. On Saturday in the third round of the US Open, the 29-year-old will have a chance to show how far he has come.

“As soon as we were able to prove that again [in Chengdu] — that we could win another title, we can be competing with those guys — it gave me the confidence to know that if I work hard and the body stays healthy, we can have a great year,” Tabilo said. “It's been unbelievable so far, so hopefully I can finish strong.”