“Trash talking should be allowed; tennis would be more entertaining” – interview with Francisco Cerundolo
If permission is given in tennis to insult and provoke the opponent, it would increase the attention of the fans and improve the show, believes Francisco Cerundolo: “Trash talking? It should be allowed. Tennis would be more entertaining and more marketable.”
One of the best Argentine tennis players today also talks about that pleasant concern that successful tennis players have to deal with: what to do with so much money?
“I’m not someone pending on money. I always focused on playing well, improving my game, being successful in tournaments. Then, if I do well, the money comes. And when it comes I don’t like to keep it still,” he said in this interview with CLAY that took place at the last edition of the ATP 250 in Cordoba. The world number 23 is, besides being a tennis player, a student of Economics and Finance. He does it online when the tight schedule of the ATP calendar allows him to read some books.
Interview with Francisco Cerúndolo
– With such an interesting year, with the Olympic Games, Argentina in the Davis Cup finals, and being seeded in the Grand Slams, where do you wish to perform better?
– The main goal is to try to maintain myself as I have been doing these last two years. I stayed top 30, I was top 20 and I think I want to have a great year to stay there. If I can do even better, welcome. It’s clear that in order to keep improving and climb the rankings I have to do well in the big tournaments, one is the consequence of the other. To be top 15, top 10? the key is in the Grand Slams and Masters 1000. You have to perform well there to be able to aspire to continue climbing. And obviously the Olympic Games add a nice spice to the season. They are every four years, and on clay every much longer. The fact that it is on clay at Roland Garros gives us a little more illusions of being able to do well.
Francisco Cerundolo during Davis Cup tie against Kazakhstan in Rosario, Argentina.
– The tie Argentina won in the Davis Cup in Rosario was the proof of how important the home-away matchups are. Do you feel that your generation was deprived of something fundamental for tennis culture?
– Yes, we were kids who grew up watching the Davis Cup quite often at home. That produced in us a big and nice illusion of being able to play it someday in that way. When Seba (Baez), Tomi (Etcheverry) and I became professionals, suddenly they changed the format. We had to get used to this way of playing the Davis Cup, in neutral venues, with a different style. There is no other way. If at some point the old format returns, we will be happy, if not, we have to try to compete in the best way whatever it takes.
– If one day you meet Gerard Piqué, would you say something to him? Would you take the opportunity to reproach him for what he took away from you?
– Naah. It has its good things and its bad things. The Davis Cup takes less time, it takes less weeks out of the year. The bad thing is that you play less at home in front of your people. It is a clear example of everything in life: with a negative and a positive side.
– When you get a big cheque like the ones Grand Slams give, how do you handle it? Do you like to invest your money and get on top of your own finances?
– I’m not a person who was always on the lookout for money. That’s on the side. I always focused on playing well, improving my game, being successful in tournaments. Then, if I do well, the money comes. And when it comes, I don’t like to keep it still. I studied Finance, I’m still studying, more or less I know about numbers and economics, but as I don’t have much time to study, to inform myself, I don’t like to invest it only by myself. I have someone to help me.
Francisco Cerundolo studies Economics and Finance in Universidad de Palermo. He does it via online // INFOBAE
– Would you sign a multimillion-dollar contract to play a parallel circuit driven by the Saudis as it happened in golf? Imagine prizes several times bigger than what you earn on the current tour.
-I don’t know, I would have to see the contract, what you can play, what you can’t play, what you are guaranteed, how much money. I would have to talk to the players to see what they think. I can’t answer that right now.
– Is the tour forgetting about the clay? There are fewer and fewer ATP tournaments on the surface.
– We would have loved for Buenos Aires to have been a 500. It is an ATP that shows every year by the players that come, the passion of the crowd and the infrastructure that it is the best 250 in the world with ATP 500 level. It would be ideal.
– Does tennis need more of trash talking?
– Yes, it should be allowed. Tennis would be more entertaining and more marketable to the public.
If you liked this interview with Francisco Cerúndolo, don’t miss, in this link to our site, many other interviews to the great protagonists of tennis.
COVER PHOTO: FRANCISCO CERUNDOLO IN THE ATP 250 OF CÓRDOBA // SEBASTIAN VARELA
