Chilean tennis player Nicolás Jarry revealed that he and his family were victims of a deeply disturbing incident: intruders entered his hotel room in Rome, where he was competing at the 2024 Italian Open. The individuals messed up his belongings and left the room in disarray.
“After dinner we returned to the hotel and found the room in disarray. Nothing had been taken, but my first reaction was to change hotels and feel safe. We made the move that same night,” said the 29-year-old in an interview with Chilean newspaper La Tercera.
According to information obtained by CLAY, the Jarry family asked the hotel for access to the security camera footage, but the request was denied. At the time, the Chilean’s inner circle and the ATP declined to comment when contacted by CLAY.
Despite such an unusual situation, the Chilean managed to play his round of 32 match and defeat Italy’s Stefano Napolitano. “They were very intense days,” he said of the tournament where he reached his first Masters 1000 final (losing to Alexander Zverev).
Jarry identifies that time as the start of his vestibular neuritis, an inflammation of the vestibular nerve that has had a major impact on his life and career. “I played the first three or four matches with a vertigo episode, everything spinning. I thought it was just nerves, but later I realised it wasn’t.”
“I wasn’t in a very good place overall. I wasn’t feeling great about myself, my tennis, my life situation. At that moment there were those two very stressful matches against local players (he beat Matteo Arnaldi in the second round before stopping Napolitano). Then, with the hotel change, we didn’t sleep much and I played the next day. On the day of the fourth-round match (against France’s Alexandre Müller) I had my first episode, walking to the court. My body exploded in this way because it just couldn’t take any more,” Jarry told journalist Carlos González.
The current world No. 100 described the moment he hit rock bottom due to the illness.
“I had another episode just before Roland Garros (2024) and then, when I got to Chile, I woke up one day and couldn’t open my eyes. They had to carry me in their arms to the clinic. I was hospitalised for a full day and then spent an entire week in bed unable to open my eyes. Then, little by little, I tried to recover,” he said.
The former world No. 16 has recently shown signs of regaining his best form, producing an outstanding run to the last 16 at Wimbledon 2025 in London, where he defeated Holger Rune, Learner Tien and Joao Fonseca.
“I’ve had to work a lot on accepting what having vision problems, dizziness, and reduced motor skills has meant for my tennis career and my personal life,” he told CLAY in an interview published before his strong campaign at the All England Club.
