The news was the best birthday present CLAY could have received on its third anniversary: Sebastián Varela Nahmías, one of the two co-founders of our site, received the Tom Perrotta Award for Tennis Journalism in its 2025 edition.
‘I am delighted. This award is a huge boost for me personally, but it is also recognition of what we have been doing at CLAY since May 2022,’ said Varela Nahmías, 32, who was born in Chile.
The Tom Perrotta Award recognises the work of journalists under the age of 35 and comes with a prize of $2,000. It will be presented on 23 August in New York during the ITWA Gala prior to the start of the US Open.
‘Each applicant submitted two articles,’ explained the ITWA in a press release issued on Monday in conjunction with the ATP, WTA and ITF.
‘A panel of seven leading tennis journalists judged the entries blind. Sebastián’s first was a feature on a man who escaped the horrors of drug trafficking to transform lives through tennis, while the second was a feature on Nicolás Jarry, a Chilean player who rebuilt his career after an 11-month doping ban.’
‘Half of his cash prize will be donated to Fundación Futuros para el Tenis, a social project that uses tennis to educate vulnerable children in Lo Espejo, the third worst-ranked district in Chile in terms of urban quality of life. The other half will support the development of CLAY as it looks to expand its coverage,’ the statement added.
Thanks to our direct access to our co-founder, we at CLAY wanted to delve deeper into the subject (when don’t we?) and asked Varela a series of questions to better understand the significance of the award, which is now in its fourth year.
– Why did you think the story about tennis and addiction was important?
– In tennis, we are used to reading about big stars and legendary stadiums, but sometimes behind the fame there is a valuable and unknown impact. Richard Quintana overcame the trauma of witnessing death and drug trafficking as a child. Thanks to his ability to change his destiny, 2,000 children from vulnerable areas have changed their future through tennis. How could a story like that not be worth telling?
– How difficult is it to tell Nicolas Jarry’s story today, and what was your achievement in this story?
– It’s difficult. He and those around him set a lot of limits. Jarry is difficult to access and doesn’t have a close relationship with the media. So, it’s hard to get him to talk, but when he does, the dialogue can become remarkably deep. The report manages to explain the shy character through good interviews that Sebastián Fest and I did for CLAY in the major tennis capitals.
– Why does CLAY focus on stories like these?
– We like to do different things, write about tennis from unusual angles, talk to the protagonists about things that go beyond what happens on the courts, understand the underlying reasons for good or bad sporting performance. We also want to offer our large English-speaking audience a special focus on what is happening in the Spanish-speaking world. I am Chilean, my co-founder is Argentinean. We have direct access to a world, that of Latin American and Spanish tennis, which is key to our sport but is often treated superficially or simply ignored in many respects.
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– How important is it in tennis today that the award has been given to a Spanish-speaking, non-Anglo-Saxon, Latin American journalist for two stories that touch on Latin American issues and, specifically, Chile?
– And for the first time to a journalist from a country that does not host a Grand Slam! I believe that tennis needs to diversify geographically. With its tournaments and its stars, but also with its journalism. It would be great if there were more specialised media, more journalists from the mass media in Chile and Latin America with the opportunity to cover what is happening in tennis from the front row, just as we do at CLAY. This award is a contribution and a good window for stories that happen in Spanish, that are born in Spanish, but thanks to CLAY being bilingual, they reach a global audience.
– What would you say to a young journalist who wants to get started in tennis coverage and dreams of covering the sport at the highest level?
– Start by covering the tennis that’s within your reach. There are also good stories in smaller tournaments and in the third division Davis Cup series. Doors open for good work and people who do good journalism. And that’s how you move on to the big tournaments and the big names, which are important, of course, but they’re not the only thing in tennis. Tennis is much more than that.
