Month: November 2021

November 21, 2021

#MyBTR– “Tennis has been in my family forever, so it was only natural that I asked to try when I was 2 years old. Over 30 years later, I still haven’t put the racquet down. Whatever happened in my life, tennis was there. Even on the hardest day of my life, tennis gave me relief.  I had to make the most difficult decision of my life to get out of a very tough marriage I had been in for over 5 years. The day I left, I played tennis, the only way I could stay clear and have the courage to do what had to be done to start the next chapter of my life. My life was about to change forever, and I had no idea where I was going to live, but I knew it was the right decision, even though it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.  The next day, I had a USTA league match scheduled, and once I told my parents what happened, they asked me if I was going to play. My answer: “Never thought of not playing.” Even though things were so chaotic and uncertain, once I was on the court, nothing (more…)

November 11, 2021

“Sometimes I think, “Why am I still doing this? It’s really tough, maybe I should stop.” I’m not 20 years old anymore, but not many times I’ve thought about that. I was more like “I want to go through this thing. I think the only way is pass through tough moments, face them, not run away from them.” I had a very tough period of time last year where I couldn’t really enjoy playing because it was like playing’ with a ghost in my mind that was tough to manage. It was not easy. I fought a lot and I thought I could pass it — I’m here for that. I’m here because I really love tennis. I love playing and I want to have a good sensation playing on the court. [The drug tests] were really dark because I got through many things that were unbelievable, almost impossible to describe. They gave me two months the first time. Even there, it was incredible because I knew I didn’t do nothing. After that, I started again from 208 in the world. In a few months, I already went again in the top 100. My own country was against me. The (more…)