sto vivendo l'avventura

Here you go 🫶🏻

Flavio. This morning, when you stepped foot on court, I held my breath. I thought about everything in just the span of a second. About when we were little. About all the times I watched you leave with a racket and a suitcase without knowing when you'd be back. About all the times you lost and said nothing, you just put your head down and left again. About dad next to you, always, in every corner of the world. About how much you've both given, in silence, with nobody really understanding how much it cost. I understood it, though, because I was there. Because I am your brother.

And this morning you were playing the Roland Garros final.

Do you know what I felt in that moment? Not excitement. Not anxiety. I felt something bigger, something that held tightly, something that I didn't know I had in me until I saw you down there, in the middle of that court. It was love. It was pride. It was the weight of all that I know and nobody else sees.

You lost today. And it hurts in ways one can't describe, I know. A hollow, heavy pain that doesn't go away immediately. But that sorrow is the exact measure of how much you loved that moment. And you loved it with all that you had.

I won't say it'll get better. I won't say the things everyone says. I'll just tell you what I know with absolute certainty.

I watched you today and I didn't see defeat. I saw my brother, in a slam final, fighting until his last breath. I saw the man that the boy I grew up with has become. I saw something I'll bring inside me for the rest of my life.