LONDON — It was a frustrating Wimbledon for Argentine tennis. Of the nine male players, not one managed a single win. Tomás Etcheverry analysed in depth the reasons behind the poor results.
“Zero out of nine — it’s a disaster. You have to lose your fear of moving on this surface. We tend to be afraid of falling. In my first match on grass this season I fell five times and at one point I thought: I’m going to end up breaking something,” said the world No. 32.
“It is fundamental to get that out of your head, because obviously this surface is more dangerous, but if you want to win, you have to throw yourself into it,” said Etcheverry, the second-highest ranked Argentine, who lost on debut to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
The last Wimbledon without an Argentine in the second round of the men’s draw was 16 years ago. Solana Sierra, on the women’s side, was the exception: she won a match before losing on Wednesday on Court 1 to Coco Gauff.
In Etcheverry’s words, grass “rewards the bravest.”
“If you serve well and return well, you will always have a chance. The match can be decided by very few points in the tie-break, it comes down to details. But if those two shots are working, you will have a chance to compete and make it a fight,” he explained.
There lies the great difference with clay, the natural surface of Argentine players: “You have to be proactive, be bold. We are players who are used to rallying. We learned a different kind of tennis because we grew up on clay, and this surface is the complete opposite. You have to rewire your thinking.”
The British and grass: a myth
Immediately after Roland Garros, Etcheverry chose to travel to London and prepare for the grass swing by training with British players. He discovered something: they barely play on grass either — the idea that they are specialists, or that they grow up on the surface, is a myth.
“They hardly touch it, just like us. Here they only start playing on grass in the summer, and it’s not like they play on it all the time as kids — quite the opposite. They are in the same boat as all of us,” said the Rio de Janeiro ATP 500 champion.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Like the Argentines, it has been a disastrous Wimbledon for British players: on the first day of competition, all ten Britons who played were eliminated.
The British newspaper The Sun put it acidly: “Wimbledon have bumped up the prize money this year for first-round losers to a record £80,000. That means the ten losers earned £800,000 between them – and in return, they only won five of 29 sets played.”
For Etcheverry, the example to follow comes from another European country: Italy.
“The Italians are in the same situation as us — there is not a single grass court in Italy, and they can do it. Why can’t we?”
