TONINO ZUGARELLI TALKS TO GOD IN THE CAR TOO.

Zugarelli belongs to the Italian team that won the 1976 Davis Cup with Adriano Panatta, Corrado Barazzutti and Paolo Bertolucci, captained by Nicola Pietrangeli. But here we begin elsewhere: what remains of a champion when a story moves from results to daily living? His voice offers a practical answer involving work and gratitude.

Prayer during the journey

It is fifty kilometres from Trevignano to the Foro Italico. Zugarelli says he talks to God along the way, with trust and even with the anger he sometimes feels. A familiar road becomes time for a conversation.

We can pause over that detail without making it a universal method. Some pray in quiet at home, others while walking or before work. A familiar journey can become a moment to return to what matters. You need not immediately find an important sentence. Sometimes the first words simply describe how you woke up.

Before the trophies, a family to help

His memories return to growing up in Rome, early jobs at clubs and wanting to become a footballer. Tennis then became an opportunity to change his circumstances. Earning money and supporting his family mattered before the trophies.

Zugarelli also speaks of people’s gratitude as a kind of wealth. His sporting past matters, but his attention reaches towards relationships. Whose names come to mind when we think of what we have built?

Who are you when nobody is applauding?

Champions are not alone in facing this question. Recognition comes in some periods; in others work seems invisible. An achievement brings joy while a mistake can occupy more space than we wish. Faith can accompany these changes without becoming another ranking measuring how well we appear strong or permanently grateful.

And do we have room to speak to God without presenting a perfect account? Work that weighs on us, joy in something achieved, a question still open: these belong to our days, too.

The value of people encountered

A professional journey includes those who teach us, share a difficult day or trust us before results arrive. Thinking of them can change how we describe an achievement. Pride in effort can coexist with gratitude for what we received. Neither has to erase the other to be sincere.

Perhaps a name comes to mind: someone who taught you, offered an opportunity or saw an ability before you did. If you can, send a specific message: ‘This is how you helped me that day.’ If you cannot, keep their name in your prayer.

Praying while life continues

Conversation with God can find a place in ordinary moments, alongside shared prayer and Mass. For Zugarelli, there is that stretch of road: time already in his day, which he has learned to use this way.

If you are driving, attention to the road comes first. You need not read your phone or search for content while moving to make that time valuable. Wait until safely stopped, or let a brief invocation accompany the journey. The Lord does not require distraction to hear you. A simple thought can find room in the day too.

A voice to hear, a question to keep

The archive video also revisits the 1976 Davis Cup. Listen to the champion, then return to our first question: where does God find room in an ordinary day?

We can take away an everyday question: when can I tell God how I am during my days? Not to add an obligation to the diary, but to recognise an existing, perhaps small, space where conversation could begin again. Tonino's journey remains his. Ours can begin next morning with what is actually in our hearts.