CLAY continues to grow and expand its coverage from the world’s major tennis venues. At the start of 2026, Spain’s Nacho Encabo, one of the country’s most renowned tennis journalists, joins the team of reporters and editors on our site on a permanent basis.
Meanwhile, Sebastián Varela Nahmías is already in Melbourne to launch coverage of the first Grand Slam of the season, where he will work alongside Aquiles Cornejo.
‘I am proud to write for CLAY, a project that has sought from the outset to break away from the usual path of the mainstream media and focus on more in-depth, analytical and critical content,’ said Encabo, who has extensive experience as an editor, first at the German news agency DPA and then at the Spanish sports website Relevo.
Encabo, 36, is clear about his mission: ‘There are many media outlets that increasingly live off replicating interviews and approaches from other media outlets: CLAY is committed to being in the second group, the ones that set trends.”
The new addition to CLAY also highlights the special profile of a site that is published in English, Spanish and Portuguese: ‘This makes writing for CLAY quite a challenge: you have to tell a story that interests an Indian reader, a German reader, a Brazilian reader or a Spanish reader.’
Encabo thus joins the already well-known names of Varela and Sebastián Fest, on a site that regularly features exceptional writers such as Serbian Sasa Ozmo, British Simon Cambers, Italian Vincenzo Martucci, Greek Vicky Georgatou, Spanish Noelia Román and Argentine Guillermo Salatino.
Carlos Alcaraz’s career has been one of the topics that Encabo has followed most closely in recent years. The Spanish journalist is aware of the exceptional nature of the Spanish tennis player.
“Spain has been extremely lucky in recent years with the emergence of Carlos Alcaraz. His explosion came just as Rafael Nadal’s star began to fade, perfect timing for passing the baton. And I say luck because I understand that the emergence of this type of star does not follow a model that can be worked on.”
The work of Encabo and the other CLAY writers can be followed on our website www.claytennis.com and on Instagram (@claymagazine_), X (@_claymagazine) and on the new Facebook page (Clay Magazine).
