I love tennis. See it and play it. I am not a specialist in this sport, but it does make me vibrate. That’s why I decided to write this column about the Davis Cup series, Chile vs. Kazakhstan, because I want to start recognizing the added value of having Nicolás Massú as captain and referent of the team.
Massú was not a talented tennis player, on the contrary, he was armed based on effort and dedication. Winning a match against viñamarino cost a lot. His career speaks of what Massú was. His enormous achievements catapult him to a place that hardly any national tennis player can achieve.
That’s why having him in the captaincy chair is a luxury. Any player should feel more than motivated to have the double Olympic medalist giving him tips and secrets to try to beat the opponent. Tennis is a sport with a lot of head and strategy. Many talented people, who did not have the rigor and strength to reach the top, succumbed to that key part of tennis.
Massú was an example of that different mental attitude. Knowledgeable and clear in his limitations, his greatest strength was always to transmit security, attitude and desire to be on the court. For this reason, I think the Chilean team has a plus to be able to have Massú in the key decisions.
It is a huge opportunity for Chile to try to stay with key against Kazakhstan. At sea level, where the ball is heavier and the court slower, clay, original surface for ours; and that also bothers visitors too much.
With Garín and Jarry defined as the singlistas, Chile can have an auspicious panorama before Búblik and Skatov. Clay is the privileged surface and the Kazakhs, trained on fast courts, know that they have less chance of winning. But that’s on paper, because from playing to playing, Búblik’s ranking is the best of all the protagonists, but, of course, in Davis Cup anything can happen.
That’s why I talk a lot about attitude. Garín and Jarry have plenty of tennis to keep the matches, but their careers are marked by intermittencies and sometimes unexpected falls against rivals of lesser tone. For years, Chilean tennis had players with a huge heart. The stories and epics of Pato Cornejo, Jaime Fillol, Hans Gildemeister, Ricardo Acuña, Marcelo Ríos, Fernando González and Nicolás Massú, transformed them into real cup players.
Davis is something else, they say in the tennis world and that’s how it is. The ranking often does not play, it only serves for the previous one. That’s why Garín and Jarry must put on the Davis Cup suit. Understand that each ball is key and that the attitude shown on the court, many times, ends up being the decisive factor when being able to close a game.
This is not a technical column, it is rather from the emotions and experiences regarding what I like about tennis. I hope to see Chile win and have the dream of returning to the big leagues. Because as the “heart of Chilean” – and incidentally send a huge hug to Patricio Cornejo, with whom I shared for years on Channel 13, thousands of hours of tennis matches – that heart that Massú had on the court, is this weekend in La Serena, and the national squad can win and enjoy the greatest desire.
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The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
