His first ATP Tour main draw appearance came at Copenhagen in 2003, when he lost to Marc Rosset in the first round.

[1] In Rome he lost a close match to world number 11 Nicolás Massú, which went for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

After getting through qualifying, Dell'Acqua beat Fabio Fognini in first round, then lost to David Ferrer.

[3] At Challenger level he won the title at Bristol in 2003 and in the same year had a win over Andy Murray in Nottingham.

At the 2004 Recanati Challenger he won the doubles title with Uros Vico and in the singles event defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga en route to the semi-finals.