Notícias/Artigos/Entrevistas Gerais

[bobzz]

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2011/05/Features/Olympics-2012-Rankings-Agreement.aspx

 

acho que dará para ter pelo menos um tuga.

Editado 1 Junho 2011 por bobzz

[Lleyton]

Citação do jornal "Record" online

Estoril Open terá instalações definitivas em 2014
Previsão de João Lagos

O diretor do Estoril Open, João Lagos, disse esta segunda-feira que o processo para construção de um pavilhão multiusos em Oeiras está a correr "a bom curso" e deverá receber definitivamente o torneio de ténis na edição de 2014.

"Se até ao final deste ano conseguirmos as licenças e o financiamento necessário é um projeto para estar concluído daqui a três anos, ou seja, na edição de 2014 já deverá haver condições para que o Estoril Open se realize nessas instalações", afirmou João Lagos à agência Lusa.

João Lagos foi esta segunda-feira homenageado pela Câmara de Oeiras, no âmbito das comemorações do dia do município, como forma de reconhecimento ao trabalho desenvolvido no Estoril Open de ténis, evento de dimensão nacional e grande impacto concelhio.

O diretor do único torneio português de ténis dos circuitos ATP e WTA disse ainda que "perenizar o Estoril Open é uma necessidade" e, para isso, salientou, "é preciso uma sede definitiva".

"Estamos muito próximos de atingir esse objetivo. Espero que na próxima edição já tenhamos o projeto aprovado, com as respetivas licenças e o financiamento assegurado, a parte mais difícil nesta altura de crise em que vivemos", sustentou.

Por seu turno, o presidente da Câmara de Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, escusou-se a adiantar informações sobre o projeto, adiantando apenas que ainda não há uma solução definitiva.

"Ainda é cedo para falar nisso. Há hipóteses de encontrar uma solução, mas ela ainda não está definitivamente assente", afirmou o autarca.

No entanto, em maio, durante a realização do torneio, o vice-presidente da autarquia, Paulo Vistas, disse à Lusa que a Câmara está a concluir o processo de posse administrativa de um terreno com cerca de 15.000 metros quadrados para a construção do pavilhão multiusos para 15.000 espetadores.

Localizado no Alto da Boa Viagem, em Caxias, neste terreno será construído um pavilhão multiusos com capacidade e funcionalidade para acolher várias modalidades desportivas e, eventualmente, de âmbito cultural.

O investimento previsto é de cerca de 25 milhões de euros, valor que a autarquia não consegue suportar e, por esse motivo, de acordo com Paulo Vistas, estão a ser feitos esforços para encontrar parceiros de financiamento.

Editado 7 Junho 2011 por André Silva

[NIkeL]

"Pavilhão"? Mas será fechado? E será longe do Jamor?

[Peplin]

Deve ser com tecto amovível. Fora do Jamor é que não me agrada, mas quero lá saber. O Estoril Open já merecia instalações definitivas há muito. Excelente notícia!

[Ricardo Gouveia]

Próximo passo: passar o Estoril Open para 500 e arranjar um Challenger Português.

[Peplin]

Passar para ATP 500 é impossível, quer financeiramente, quer devido ao calendário.

 

Arranjar um Challenger em Portugal, concordo inteiramente. Nesta altura de crise é que não haverá ninguém que pegue nisso. O João Sousa, há coisa de um ano/um ano e meio, falou na possibilidade de surgir um Challenger em Guimarães, creio, mas nunca ouvi mais nada senão aquilo que ele disse na entrevista.

[Ricardo Gouveia]

Passar para ATP 500 é impossível, quer financeiramente, quer devido ao calendário.

 

Arranjar um Challenger em Portugal, concordo inteiramente. Nesta altura de crise é que não haverá ninguém que pegue nisso. O João Sousa, há coisa de um ano/um ano e meio, falou na possibilidade de surgir um Challenger em Guimarães, creio, mas nunca ouvi mais nada senão aquilo que ele disse na entrevista.

Exacto, tinha noção disso, mas adorava que o Estoril Open "subisse". Em termos de tempo, não lhe favorece muito nem é possível isso ao estar "preso" entre o 500 de Barcelona e o Masters de Madrid (mais o de Roma), ambos em Espanha.

 

O Challenger em Portugal também é (por agora) uma autêntica utopia, talvez até já seja alguma sorte termos uns 4-6 Futures (esqueço-me sempre de quantos são). Compreendo perfeitamente que ninguém queira pegar num projecto desse nível - quanto muito um jogador já reformado e com uma pipa de massa que se atrevesse a investir nisso - mas a atenção e protagonismo mediático que o Ténis tem em Portugal, além de roçar o nulo (mas que já me surpreendeu algumas vezes) apenas tornaria esse tipo de iniciativa pouco viável.

Eu cá corria Portugal inteiro só para ver um Challenger, mais pelo apoio financeiro e aos jogadores portugueses, além da relativa proximidade que um Challenger permite.

[Peplin]

De cabeça, creio que temos 5 Futures.

 

O problema do nosso ténis é que é o João Lagos a pegar nisto e... mais ninguém.

 

Eu, pelo contrário, acho que um Challenger em Portugal teria boa receptividade. A modalidade tem crescido em Portugal e acho que um Challenger montado numa cidade relativamente grande e com tradição no ténis (Guimarães seria uma boa hipótese), traria muita gente. Mais gente do que maioria dos Challengers europeus.

[Rōnin]

Sinceramente, preferia ter uns 5 Challengers do que o Estoril Open.

[NIkeL]

Mal conseguimos aguentar um 250 quanto mais um 500.

[Peplin]

Ivanovic hires coach Nigel Sears away from LTA

 

 

Ana Ivanovic has hired Nigel Sears to be her coach. Sears will step down as the head of women’s coaching for the Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). Sears also coached former Top 10 players Amanda Coetzer and Daniela Hantuchova, and is the father of Andy Murray’s longtime girlfriend, Kim. Ivanovic has known Sears for a couple of years. "I couldn’t be happier," Ivanovic said in a statement. "I’ve admired Nigel for some time now, and I can’t wait to start working with him on court. It was important that I waited for the right coach, and we are both excited about the challenges ahead."

 

Both parties are said to anticipate a long-term relationship. It is likely that Sears signed a long-term contract and is making at least what he was at the LTA, as he has a family. Ivanovic has repeatedly said this year that she wanted a long-term commitment from a coach, after she was unable to secure one from Heinz Gunhardt last year and recently was unable to convince adidas Player Development coach Darren Cahill to spend more time with her.

 

The former No. 1 has been through a series of personal changes over the past seven months. After Gunhardt declined to become her full-time coach because he wanted to retain his television work and spend time with his family, she hired coach Antonio van Grichen, the former tutor of Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva, but they parted ways after just two months in February. The 2008 Roland Garros champion also parted ways with her physical trainer and childhood friend, Marija Lojanica, in March. TENNIS.com has also learned that she has parted with her hitting partner, Oliver Morel. She and Sears will collaborate in finding her a new physical trainer, but she will not hire a full time hitting partner, instead employing different people throughout the upcoming U.S. summer hard court season.

 

Ivanovic is currently on vacation and will begin to work with Sears upon her return in a couple of weeks. She is scheduled to play Stanford, San Diego, Toronto and Cincinnati prior to the U.S. Open. Petra Cetkovska upset the 18-seeded Ivanovic in the third round of Wimbledon.

 

Outside of adidas coaches Sven Groenfeld and Cahill, Ivanovic has worked with five private coaches since 2006: Zoltan Kuharsky, David Taylor, Craig Kardon, Gunthardt and van Grichen.

 

Sears spent four-and-a-half years at the LTA and was also captain of Great Britain's Fed Cup team. During his tenure, five British women broke into the Top 100, two made the Top 50 and two teens—Laura Robson and Heather Watson—won junior grand slams. The LTA has not only lost Sears, but performance director Steve Martens recently quit. Commercial and communications chief Bruce Philipps is also leaving the organization next month.

[Peplin]

 

Novak’s Odyssey

 

 

Dusk is spreading over the Arabian desert and at Dubai’s Aviation Club, the site of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Novak Djokovic and team are sitting up straight around a poolside table. A couple of hours earlier, in his first tournament since winning the Australian Open, he scrapped through a tough three-set win over Feliciano Lopez. Despite the victory, the mood at the table seems to be one of concern.

 

“Normally, we do not have these meetings during the tournament, but rather before the start of the tournament or before we travel anywhere,” says Djokovic. “We try make sure that the organisational and analysis part is good and that the communication between the team members is clear. It is really important to have good relations between the members of the team so everyone can produce their best work.”

 

Whatever alarm flag that shot up which caused the meeting must have been solved, because since then Djokovic went on a tear, going undefeated until the semi-finals of Roland Garros. After Dubai, it often looked like he was incapable of losing a set, much less a match. That very thing even attracted the attention of those at the Monte Carlo players’ party, where Team Djokovic’s quality control meetings were parodied by good friend Janko Tipsarevic.

 

At the end of 2009, Novak Djokovic said, “To reach that goal [World No. 1], I’m going to have to be very successful at the major tournaments. I haven’t done a great job at the Grand Slams, which wasn’t the case in the last two years.”

 

Despite making the final of the US Open (l. to Nadal) and a semi-final loss at Wimbledon to Tomas Berdych, the major highlight to 2010 was leading Serbia to the Davis Cup title. Whether that served as a catalyst to his incredible run through 2011 is anyone’s guess, but it is a pretty good starting point. You could say that Novak was now starting to tick off some boxes from long ago laid plans.

 

Novak’s journey began at the age of six years old when he was brought to Serbia’s Jelena Gencic’s attention. It was Gencic who discovered Monica Seles.

 

“When little Novak came to me I needed only one week with him to be sure,” says Gencic. “On the fifth day I asked him in front of his parents, ‘Novak do you want to spend the next seven, eight years training very hard every day, sometimes with smiles and sometimes with tears?’ He said, ‘Yes, I want to be great.’ He was only six years old but he had the eyes, and the heart and the soul of a champion. I was so sure that he would make it.”

 

Oftentimes after evening practice, young Djokovic would accompany Gencic back to her Belgrade apartment so he could watch videos of men’s and women’s tennis champions.

 

“Maybe that is how he became so good at imitating other players' movements,” says Gencic. “He loved so much watching videos of the great champions like Agassi, Sampras and Edberg. He would say to me, ‘Please, Jelena, explain to me how Sampras can hit the running forehand parallel?’ Then I must explain to this little boy which leg to stop with and which leg to transfer weight forward with and so on. And you know, he never took his eyes off of mine the entire time I am explaining him the technique. This child was so hungry for tennis knowledge.”

 

“There is one other thing that we used to do,” continues Gencic. “I used classical music to teach him visualisation. We would listen to a composition and afterwards I would ask him what he heard and what he felt. One time after listening to Tchaikovsky 1812 overture he says to me, ‘My heart feels blissful. And my skin is like the flesh of a goose.’ Can you imagine a seven year old boy feeling and saying such things?”

 

“I remember her setting up bars very high for me early in my career,” Djokovic recalls of his time with Gencic. “She always made me look at all the champions of the men’s and women’s game at the time to try and analyse their games to always try to have the winning attitude. And she also taught me to have a lot of confidence in myself and be very dedicated to the sport.”

 

While his improved serve, fitness and weight loss get much of the attention, those that know him best point to his mind and intelligence as his real weapon.

 

“I think his mindset now is just that he is a much better poker player,” says Mats Wilander. “He might be bluffing on the inside, but he is not bluffing on the outside. No one knows what he is thinking, he has a great poker face. And he has matured tremendously. If he was a five or six mentally before then he is a 10 now.”

 

Former World No. 1 Thomas Muster knows a thing or two about chasing legends from his time playing with Pete Sampras.

 

“I feel that he has really grown into his boots the last couple of years,” says Muster. “He has been delivering the results. He lost quite a bit of a weight and he is more flexible, with more range, and when he runs he gets more balls back. You can tell that there has been a lot of work going on in his camp. He has moved into a league of being a true star. Now things will get even tougher as the challenge and desire will be to remain No. 1.”

 

Muster mentioned something that all the coaches and players in the locker room have noticed this year. Team Djokovic has been hard at work. Everything from specialised balancing drills in the gym to regulated nutrition to pre-match visualisation sessions in private rooms has all contributed. But also, players point out his more offensive tactics during the point.

 

“Obviously, his serve is much improved,” observes Goran Ivanisevic. “But he is much more aggressive than last year. In my opinion, he was a bit too defensive in the past because he was so great at it. But now, he is much more aggressive. He attacks so much better.”

 

While his game and results speak volumes, it is his personality that has attracted a legion of fans around the world. Whether it is imitations of his fellow players, commercials, or his often colourful entrances onto center court, Novak Djokovic is an entertainer. Mansour Bahrami is one who can appreciate what Novak brings to the fans.

 

“He is great for tennis,” says Bahrami. “He does great imitation of all the players, which I think it is fantastic. During the tournaments his focus is great, and he is even more serious this year. The difference between us is that he is a great player and good entertainer. I am only an entertainer. When Novak wins tennis matches he makes people smile.”

 

And so far in 2011 Novak Djokovic has given tennis plenty of reasons to smile. Though Mats Wilander cautions that while achieving the game’s No. 1 status is a truly great achievement, it is not all fun and games.

 

“Going from world number three to one is much easier than going from one to three,” says Wilander. “It is great to be chasing. That was easily the best year of my career. The pressure of No. 1 can really mess with your head.”

 

That is a bridge that Novak Djokovic will happily cross now.

 

“I have always been going towards that lifetime goal and that is to be No. 1,” admits Djokovic. “To be the best is what drives me.”

 

Congratulations Novak Djokovic. The odyssey is complete and the dream has finally become a reality.

[Carson Wentz]

 

Vale do Lobo Grand Champions cancelado

 

A Premier Sports' date=' empresa que organiza o torneio de ténis de Vale do Lobo, comunicou o cancelamento da 11.ª edição da prova que deveria realizar-se entre os dias 9 e 12 de Agosto, no Algarve.

 

Os motivos do cancelamento foram explicados em comunicado:

 

A PREMIER SPORTS e VALE DO LOBO, RESORT TURÍSTICO DE LUXO lamentam comunicar o cancelamento da 11ª edição do torneio de ténis Vale do Lobo Grand Champions, previsto realizar entre 9 e 12 de Agosto de 2011, em Vale do Lobo.

 

Apesar de constituir há mais de 10 anos um evento social e desportivo de renome, realizado em plena época alta do turismo e integrando o circuito mundial ATP Champions Tour, infelizmente a desistência de última hora de patrocinadores essenciais ditou a não realização, este ano, do torneio.

 

A sua enorme tradição e importância para a promoção turística nacional e internacional, leva-nos a que tenhamos a ambição do regresso dos grandes ídolos do ténis mundial aos courts de Vale do Lobo, se possível já no próximo ano, esperando para essa tarefa poder contar com o apoio há muito esperado do Turismo de Portugal.

[/quote']

Editado 5 Julho 2011 por RManelaa

[Peplin]

Pois é...

[Carson Wentz]

Turismo de Portugal strikes again! :roll:

[Peplin]

 

Gil Fortunato é dos melhores

 

 

O angolano Gil Fortunato integra os quadros técnicos do Clube de Ténis "Ceto-João Cunha e Silva", onde milita Frederico Gil, melhor tenista português no "ranking" da Associação de Ténis Profissional (ATP), ocupando o 83º posto.

 

Gil Fortunato, de 27 anos, figura entre os melhores treinadores lusos e estrangeiros que trabalham em Portugal. Originário de uma família de desportistas e jornalistas, abraçou a modalidade aos dez anos no Nugo Maco de Benguela, representando depois o Grupo Jambito, Ensa de Benguela e Ensa de Luanda. Aos 17 anos, Gil Fortunato rumou para Portugal, onde jogou em vários clubes, tendo terminado a carreira no Ceto-João Cunha e Silva. Em termos de palmarés, venceu cinco finais e perdeu uma.

 

Em declarações terça-feira ao Jornal de Angola, o técnico angolano manifestou-se satisfeito com o momento actual na sua carreira de treinador. "Sinto-me orgulhoso com tudo de bom que está a acontecer na minha vida profissional. Estou a viver um momento ímpar. O objectivo é continuar a subir", afirmou.

 

Gil Fortunato desempenha um duplo papel no Ceto. Além de treinador dos escalões de formação, trabalha na pesquisa de talentos para o clube. "Muitos dos jogadores que o Ceto tem foram encontrados por mim. Postos no clube, iniciam um trabalho aturado até atingir a perfeição. Que o diga o Frederico Gil", realçou. O treinador é assediado por vários clubes, como o Clube de Ténis de Marbella, Espanha, Academia de Ténis de Londres e um clube dos Estados Unidos. "A direcção do clube rejeitou o interesse das três agremiações. Estou bem no Ceto. As condições são óptimas", garantiu Gil Fortunato.

 

João Linho, antigo companheiro de selecção de Gil Fortunato, recordou os momentos vividos ao serviço da equipa nacional. "Guardo boas recordações do Gil. Como atleta era temível. Agora como treinador, sei que está a fazer um excelente trabalho no seu clube. Espero que continue com esta humildade. Força, Gil Fortunato", sublinhou.

 

O antigo técnico de Gil Fortunato, o também angolano Kito Barros, congratulou-se com a ascensão do seu ex-pupilo na carreira como treinador. "Estou satisfeito com a carreira de treinador do Gil Fortunato. Tenho dado muita força ao Gil. Não tenho dúvidas de que o Gil Fortunato vai continuar a trilhar os melhores caminhos", ressaltou.

[Peplin]

 

Kleybanova has Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer

 

Alisa Kleybanova is undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. The Russian, who turned 22 today, announced on the WTA web site that she is currently at a hospital in Italy.

 

"It's not an easy time for me right now. I've been a bit unlucky with my health,” said Kleybanova, who is considered one of the WTA up-and-comers and reached a career-high No. 20 ranking earlier this February. "I've been having treatment and it has been going well, but it takes lots of patience and I've had to be really strong to go through this. The good news is after I do treatment for a few more months, if I feel well, there's a chance I'll be able to play tennis again. I really miss playing - I miss seeing fans and friends around the world, I miss hitting the ball, I miss everything. Tennis has been my life for the last 15 years."

 

Kleybanova, who early in the spring complained to TENNIS.com about feeling generally lethargic, hasn’t played a tournament since Rome in May. The general prognosis for younger people with stage 1 or 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma is positive. Many young patients are said to live 40 years or more after treatment.

 

“I am a strong person. I've shown it before,” Kleybanova said. “Obviously this is different than anything I've ever experienced, but after this is over my life will be even better than before. This is the toughest time in my life, and I hope it always stays the toughest time in my life. I'm sure I'll be able to overcome this - it's just a matter of patience and time. When this is over, everything will be even better than before."

 

Tennis Channel reporter Cari Champion tweeted that she had spoken to Kleybanova and her conversation with the Russian will be broadcast sometime later today. Champion said that Kleybanova has Stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma.

 

Fdx, aprecio-a bastante. :| A melhor das sortes para ela!

[Descartes]

Oscar Down, But Not Out

 

 

A routine operation on a slipped disc nearly ended Oscar Hernandez’s tennis career. Now, at the age of 33, the Spaniard is determined to return to the game he loves.

 

Christmas is normally a time of joy and celebration, but Spain’s Oscar Hernandez found himself struggling to enjoy the holiday this past December. As he lay confined to a hospital bed, Hernandez was consumed by feelings of loss and isolation, contemplating the news that he would never again be able to play professional tennis.

 

Troubled by lower back pain for the entire 2010 season, doctors diagnosed a herniated L5 S1 disc that would be career threatening without surgery. They suggested to Hernandez a routine operation to put it right. So, on 24 November 2010, Hernandez went under the surgeon’s knife. However, what happened next was far from routine. He suffered a rare complication that affects just one in 1,000 patients.

 

“After the operation they sent me home to rest for a little bit,” recalls Hernandez. “One week later, I started walking a little bit and I started feeling dizzy during the night. It felt like I was drunk. So after three or four more days I started walking a little bit more and I couldn’t because the dizziness was worse. I went to the hospital again and they said to me I had to spend three more weeks in bed until the scar got a little bit better. They told me it wouldn’t be a problem, that it sometimes happens with this kind of surgery.”

 

The problem turned out to be a spinal fluid leak, which can occur due to inadvertent tears in the sac around the spinal cord. With Hernandez still no better three weeks later, the doctors advised him to undergo another operation followed by a lengthy rest period. For a man described by his lifelong friend, Alberto Martin, as “a great guy, very funny and always with a smile on his face”, it was going to be a real test of character.

 

For nearly two months he lay in his hospital bed, unable to move. For an active person, used to running, training, and competing on the tour, it was torture. “Spending nearly two months in bed was very tough for him,” recalls his coach, Marcos Roy. “He was pretty depressed at the beginning at not being able to move.”

 

The only thing Hernandez had to break the monotony were a few more small operations. “It was really bad for me because I’m used to doing a lot of physical activity,” he says. “I used to run a lot, and I couldn’t. It was so horrible. I just watched television, that’s it. It was so difficult to be positive during that time because it was a really bad moment in my life.”

 

A relatively private individual, Hernandez told only one of the Spanish Armada – Martin – about the surgery complications. It was largely with the support of his family and fiancée, Raquel, that he endured the boredom and depression all over Christmas and New Year. Finally he was discharged on 5 January with the express instruction to rest in bed for one more week.

 

“They said to me to start walking a little bit in the morning and then rest,” explains Hernandez. “I was a little bit like a kid when I started walking. All my body was so skinny and my legs were not too good; they were really painful. I lost all my muscles too, but I didn’t have too many muscles before!”

 

He didn’t know it yet, but the worst news was yet to come. It turned out to be an extreme case of ‘be careful what you wish for’ for the Barcelona native. Lying in his hospital bed he had declared to his coach that he didn’t want to play tennis any more, such was his misery and frustration at the turn of events. “There was a moment when he wasn’t feeling good and he did mention that he wanted to stop [playing tennis],” recalls Roy, “that he couldn’t see how he could come back to play."

 

The moment swiftly passed though. And it was with eagerness and optimism that Hernandez asked the doctors when he would be able to return to the sport he had been playing professionally since 1998.

 

But more bad fortune awaited Hernandez. When the doctors had done the initial operation to correct the herniated disc, they discovered that the Spaniard was also suffering from spondylolisthesis, a condition in which a vertebra in the lower part of the spine slips out of the proper position onto the bone below it. They entered his room bearing bad news.

 

“I spoke to the doctor and asked him if I could play tennis again and he said, with these words, ‘Yes, you can play tennis, but only on Sundays with your friends!’” Hernandez reacted in horror at the doctor’s assessment. “I said, ‘I’m not talking about playing tennis only with my friends, I’m talking about playing pro tennis.’ And he said to me it would be painful again. If I were to do a really good rehab, I could play without pain, but it will be really difficult.”

 

Martin remembers, “I think he went through difficult moments because after the injury he found out that the surgery hadn’t gone that well. He had difficult moments there, but when he passed that, he started to see the light and to enjoy himself again. But he went through very difficult moments and he was a little bit down.”

 

When considering Hernandez’s skills and attributes as a tennis player, Marcos Roy bemoaned the right-hander’s temper. Although Hernandez had managed flare-ups better over the years, it had often caused him to lose confidence during matches. In light of his current hardships, it seemed that very passion to compete and his love for the game would be what would drive Hernandez to refute the doctor’s analysis and channel all his energies into returning to tennis.

 

“When you are lying on your back and you have these kinds of problems, you appreciate your love for tennis,” Hernandez says. “For me now, it is really important to get one racquet and play just for 15 minutes. Now it’s my dream. Being in bed at the hospital for a long time made me realise the importance that tennis had in my life. Now I realise during all that time that I didn’t give a 100 per cent in my practice or matches.”

 

Coach Roy remembers, “They weren’t very positive about Oscar playing again. He was very sad the day he was told. But what I can tell you is the following day he was telling me how he wanted to do everything to try and come back. He didn’t want to retire this way, he really wanted to come back to play.

 

“I think he also grew as a person and became stronger with this bad experience. It was Oscar himself who found the motivation to come back. At the end of the day I’m only the coach and I can help him in any way I can. But there is no player who, if he doesn’t have the motivation, can play good tennis.”

 

It would not be the first time that Hernandez had prepared to start afresh. Indeed, this was to be the start of a third career for the 33-year-old Spaniard. Success has never come easily to Hernandez. At three he began playing tennis with his parents, Domingo and Pilar, on the courts he could see from his bedroom window. A late developer, he was described by Martin, as “a very small kid, who didn’t have much power”.

 

“I was never a great tennis player,” confesses Hernandez. “I think I won my first ATP point when I was 20 or 21. It was too late to be perfect.”

 

So it was at the age of 23, ranked outside the Top 300 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, that Hernandez was forced to make a decision. “For players like me, in the Top 500, you don’t have money. I didn’t want to say to my parents, ‘Please pay my hotels and the tickets and everything to play tennis,’ because I was feeling like I was losing my money and I would have been losing the money of my parents. I said, ‘Okay, that’s not my life. I cannot be a good player.’”

 

Disillusioned with tennis, Hernandez hung up his racquet and turned his hand to working as a waiter in a nightclub where some of his friends worked. It lasted just three months.

 

Enter Marcos Roy, the man hailed by Hernandez as the “best coach in the world”. Roy transformed his career. At the start of their working relationship, they laid out a two-year plan to reach the Top 100. It happened within a year. “Oscar was away from the court because he didn’t achieve what he wanted,” recalls Roy. “He tried to have a normal life and a normal job, but then he realised himself that he could do more. He wasn’t a young player, but I had a lot of confidence in him and he had a lot of confidence in me.”

 

The difference? More self-belief and a greater work ethic, claims Martin. “I think Oscar realised at a late age that he had skills he didn’t know he had. He became more professional when he was 24 years old and that’s when he got his results. Before he stopped I don’t think he believed in himself the same as he did afterwards. But he also hadn’t worked as much as he did when he started again. He worked harder, was more professional and he realised that he had the chance; and then he believed in himself more.”

 

Now, 10 years later, there are parallels to be drawn as Hernandez once again looks to claw his way up the rankings. During his most successful years on court, the right-hander reached a career-high World No. 48, defeated two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt at the 2007 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and scalped now-World No. 5 Robin Soderling in his own backyard in Båstad in 2007. It is those memories, coupled with the realisation that he could have achieved even more had he applied himself better, that are driving Hernandez to declare a Top 100 finish in 2011 as his ambition.

 

Currently World No. 407 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, it seems a lofty ambition. But he is a man determined to realise his goal. He began his rehabilitation in February, accompanied by a new training partner, his dog Buffy; encouraged by his fiancée Raquel; and guided once more by Marcos Roy.

 

“It’s a very slow process,” says Roy. “Even today he’s not 100 per cent. He has days where it’s tougher and of course his motivation is a bit affected by it. But this is where I come in and play my role as a coach. I need to make him see things on the positive side. You don’t get anything without putting the work in and he will achieve what he really wants if he keeps working at it and is consistent about it.”

 

As a former Top 40 player, Martin appreciates the difficulties of returning from a serious injury, but states, “The important thing is that he wants to return. He loves tennis and he wants to do it. We will see the result. He’s very determined and he wants it a lot. So I think he has to try it and he has nothing to lose now.”

 

For Hernandez, the saying rings true that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’. It is with renewed vigour and appreciation for both his health and his tennis that the Spaniard is prepared to embark on his third career.

 

“My ambition is to finish 2011 in the Top 100. Maybe I won’t even be able to play one match, I don’t know. At this moment it’s so difficult to say that. I don’t think I can improve my tennis. But I have a really important thing: I have a lot of experience. I know how life is, I know how tennis is.

 

“During my recuperation I had difficult moments, but I know for sure that I want to play tennis again and retire from this fantastic sport inside the courts, not outside of them.”

 

 

Hernandez :prayer: :prayer: :prayer:

[Peplin]

Nunca fui fã dele, mas fiquei tocado pela história e desejo-lhe a melhor das sortes. :handclap:

[Rōnin]

Nunca fui fã dele, mas fiquei tocado pela história e desejo-lhe a melhor das sortes. :handclap:

 

Ele já se retirou do ténis, mas desconhecia que ele tinha tido tantos problemas. Sinceramente, só passei a gostar dele depois do que ele fez ao Koellerer, de resto era um razoável jogador típico de terra batida, que se também se dava bem noutros pisos, dado o seu estilo ofensivo de jogo.

[Lleyton]

que se também se dava bem noutros pisos

:mrgreen:

[Rōnin]

:mrgreen:

 

Ia jurar que ele já tinha feito alguma coisa interessante no US Open.

[Lleyton]

O homem era um trambolho do pior fora da terra batida :mrgreen:

[Rōnin]

Só para veres como acompanhei a carreira dele. :lol: A memória é traiçoeira, devo ter confundido com outro jogador. [-(

[Lleyton]

Fui agora ver os números por curiosidade e ele nunca jogou um único encontro fora da terra batida nos challengers e futures :lol:

 

Ao nível ATP tem um score de 5-32 em hard e de 1-9 em relva :lol:

 

A única vitória na relva foi frente ao Koellerer :mrgreen:

Editado 23 Julho 2011 por André Silva