Mental control, enjoyment and winning ugly: Nicolas Jarry’s keys to close 2023 as the best Latinamerican player
Cliché motivational phrase: it doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you finish. Surely Nicolas Jarry thought it more than once during 2023. Because in January he was the 152nd tennis player in the world, and in November, with his season already finished after Paris Bercy, he is top twenty. He is also the best Latin American player on tour.
Nicolas Jarry’s keys
“The ranking reflects the work behind. I’m more confident, I’ve managed to control my head, I’m stronger. I’m enjoying myself more, I’ve grown as a person. The sum of many positive aspects got me here, having won tight matches and others in which I played badly,” said the Chilean, already on vacation, although attending the media in an activity of his sponsor Sky Airline.
“The year has been incredible, I have achieved several changes. There were very few negative moments and when there were, I dealt with them in a good way”, pointed as Nicolas Jarry’s keys.
He closed the year in the 19th position of the ranking ATP thanks to a very regular season with two ATP 250 titles (Santiago and Geneva) and the best result of his career in a Grand Slam (round of 16 at Roland Garros). And it is in the biggest tournaments where he will be able to gain ground in 2024 after having exits in the first week in Australia, Wimbledon and the US Open: “Next year comes with more obstacles than this one, but I am a better tennis player than before. I have the challenge of having my place assured in all the important tournaments, so I know that I have to have a very good preseason to be at the level that the circuit demands from me”.
The best year of his career came after starting from zero in Futures and Challengers after an 11-month suspension due to an involuntary doping. Today he is a new Jarry, father of two sons (Juanito and Santiago) with whom he travels all over the circuit accompanied by his wife Laura.
“I am always alert to what Laura needs. She is the head (of the family logistics) and I am supporting her, taking care of the secondary rols. I always take the passports with me when we fly. And on the plane, we show Juanito YouTube videos, as long as they are educational. When he doesn’t have toys, he finds something to play with. Even the seat tray is a toy,” he said at the event, which took place on the clay tennis courts of a private club in northern Santiago.
Juanito, just over a year old, is already a recognized star on the international tour. The little boy is already used to airplanes and knows that when he is buckled in, he can’t move too much. Sometimes he asks to walk down the aisle when he feels restless.
Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia? “It’s positive”
The Chilean supported the idea of the tour coming to different locations.
The Times reported that it is practically certain that the ATP will raise in 2025 a Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia, and Jarry does not dislike the idea: “Tennis is a global sport, and that championships are made in different places is positive. Tennis need to do something in Africa, where there are no tournaments” (editor’s note: only the ATP 250 of Morocco is played in the continent).
“I wish the ATP would do fluid swings and that the calendar would be a little shorter”, asked the main favorite for the year’s progress award given by the Association of Tennis Professionals every year-end.
