2023-06-25 06:17:39
“I am the spoiled one,” says Martín Landaluce, 17, with a spectacular plant, 191 centimeters of a tennis player. He is surrounded by David Ferrer and Álex Corretja, two of the best players that Spanish tennis has produced, and Vivi Ruano, who was number one in doubles. The young man wants, in some way, to thank the players of previous generations: “You had it more difficult, but you have given us that fighting character. I have been able to play my first Tennis Europe, ITF Junior (tournaments for players from 12 to 16 years old), I achieved the first points here in Mallorca and I already reached a level to go out to compete”, adds the man from Madrid, one of the promises of Spanish tennis, a boy who has benefited from the structure in which he comes working the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation. In numbers: there are now 2,300 tournaments in our country, 220 of them international (in 2017 there were 59). “Tournaments can be played practically every week. Only the US is comparable but without the disadvantage of long distances,” says Miguel Díaz, president of the Federation. Since 2016, the investment has gone from 40,000 euros to 1.2 million (at the end of the text you can see all the data on tournaments and tennis players), thanks also to the help of the CSD or sponsors such as Mapfre.
It is what they call the Spanish Tennis Pyramid, a way to prevent talent from falling by the wayside due to lack of resources, for reasons unrelated to quality; the possibility of doing the entire development phase, and part of the elite, almost without leaving Spain. “Tennis is expensive. You pay for the coach, if you have it; the trips… Until you get into the Challengers at least [como los torneos de Segunda División, por decirlo de alguna manera], who have hospitality, you pay everything. It is expensive for you if you do not get results, unless you have help from federations or a sponsor», explains Jordi Arrese, silver medalist at the Barcelona 92 Olympic Games. «In my time there were circuits that were like four Futures. late and I did very few. I had left tennis, from 15 and a half to 17 and a half I played once a week, but I gave myself a chance, “he adds.
And Alberto Berasategui, runner-up at Roland Garros in 1993, explains what these circuits were like: “They were called ‘satellites’, they were made up of four venues and to score points you had to play all four, you had to spend a whole month to score points, while today “Today, the Futures score individually. We used to play the Murcia satellite (Cartagena, Yecla, Murcia tennis, Cordillera tennis), the northern one (Oviedo, Vigo, Santander…)”, he continues. He got his first ATP points in Murcia. “He was very lucky to be awarded a scholarship by the federation and was part of a group that Bimbo sponsored us,” continues Berasategui.
The Bimbo Group
Álex Corretja was also in that Bimbo Group: “At that time of mine you had to go out a lot. The Spanish Federation always helped me, and the Catalan Federation, but here we didn’t have so many tournaments. The Pyramid is key to the future of Spanish tennis , so that there continue to be positive dynamics, that players come out, that there are more possibilities”, says the winner of the Masters in 1998. “I was privileged because I was champion of Spain in all categories and I was subsidized by the Federation, then They did the Grupo Bimbo, which was sponsored by Manolo Orantes and Javier Duarte. For example, the Federation helped us with money and if we won the prizes to cover it, we returned what they had invested. To give an example, if I I went to a Challenger and the Federation had given me 1,000 euros and I earned 1,500, so I returned 1,000 and kept 500 for myself. If I won 300, I returned 300 and the Federation had invested 700 in me,” says Corretja.
“If you serve and are competitive, being able to play these tournaments in your country is a bargain”
“We traveled to Portugal, to Italy… There I got the first WTA points”, recalls Vivi Ruano. “I have known what it is to have to leave your country, spend money, the infrastructure on trips… In these small tournaments you hardly have a financial prize when you win, not even to cover yourself. That now you have them in Spain, that you can go by car anywhere, the coach, the family can accompany you, it’s a point in favor so that later you can support yourself”, insists the current director of the Challenger de El Espinar, who since 2015 is also female and won there, for For example, Paula Badosa.
“It’s a bargain,” says Arrese de la Pirámide. “If you serve and are competitive, this is what makes you better because in juniors, infants, cadets… You can compete against the best and that’s an incredible advantage, because you don’t have to move from the country. It’s still expensive, but it helps a lot,” he continues.
Nadal, Alcaraz…
“Playing those tournaments is everything. Going from zero to one hundred is impossible. Even Alcaraz has played Futures and Challengers, and Nadal too… They fused the stages, but they are the exception, the normal thing is to spend them advancing a little, then you go back , you advance…», says Corretja.
Martín Landaluce has started 2023 from scratch, after the previous process, to make the leap to the professional circuit. He is the 770 in the world. The course started on 1,093 and he has achieved ATP points in Córdoba, Manacor, Madrid, Sabadell and Porec (Croatia). He has already played two matches in the “First” tournaments as a guest: in 2022 in Gijón and in 2023 at the Mutua Madrid Open.
All the data of Spanish tennis
150 world-ranked tennis players220 International tournaments in 2023A thousand tennis refereesMore than 1,300 affiliated clubs2,300 Official competitions per yearMore than 10,000 certified coachesMore than 15,000 tennis courts85,000 licensed players193,000 Official matches per yearMore than 3 million practitioners
Tournaments in Spain 2023
3 ATP Tour4 WTA Tour15 ATP Challenger41 ITF World Tennis Tour Masculinos42 ITF World Tennis Tour Femeninos25 ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors28 Tennis Europe Junior Tour (Sub’12 a Sub’16)8 Circuitos Nacionales Juveniles62 ITF Masters World Tennis Tour (Veteranos/as)+ 2.000 Torneos nacionales y territoriales
chair tennis
7 ITF Wheelchair Tennis13 MAPFRE League Chair Tennis Tournaments
beach tennis
1 ITF Beach Tennis Tour Sand Series6 ITF Beach Tennis Tour2 ITF Beach Tennis Tour Juniors16 Torneos Liga MAPFRE de Tenis Playa
#Alcaraz #Badosa #out.. #Spain #largest #tournament #structure #world #bargain