Mumbai, April 18 -- Tennis loves its breakthrough faces rising to overnight stardom, but here's a tale of perseverance through persistent grind and career, nay, life-challenging obstacles. Tennis loves narratives of two poster boys sharing a private jet to fly into an event, but here's a tale of a journeyman who once hopped in a rental car and drove over 1,000km to make it to a Grand Slam as a late replacement. Tennis loves Alcaraz and Sinner, but here's a tale of Marco Trungelliti that is just as extraordinary. At 36, after spending half his career as one of thousands of pros slugging it out in the unrelenting lower rungs, Trungelliti became the oldest debutant in ATP's top 100 rankings in the Open Era. He achieved this after featuring in the ATP 250 Marrakesh title clash as the oldest first-time tour-level finalist. That is just one part of the Trungelliti tale. The other involves years of battling depression after he became a rare whistleblower in the sport, exposing three of his compatriots in a match-fixing episode. It turned his life upside down instead, forcing the Argentine to leave home after receiving threats from within his country. That's a career criss-crossing through promise, hope, struggle, threats, depression, belief and reward. "I can tell you, I went through every single thought - from the very positives to the very dark ones," Trungelliti said in an interview with HT. What he can't tell, however, is whether the top-100 leap at his age carries the overriding feeling of 'at long last' or 'long due'. "I guess a bit of both," he chuckled. "I don't have the feeling that it's surreal. Perhaps because it's something that I felt was closer than farther. Probably when I step back from the sport, I would realise it." It was indeed closer in 2016, when Trungelliti, ranked outside the top 150, beat the then world No.10 Marin Cilic in the French Open first round. This was when he was a regular on the Challenger circuit, seeking that push into the elite. This was also a year after a fixer posing as a potential sponsor, approached him. Fixers and betting syndicates try to lure players on the lower levels whose incomes largely depend on their weekly performances....