Month: August 2023

August 31, 2023

“It hit me at six-two. I was like, this could be the last point of my career. It was one of those moments that I realized it’s just very special to be able to retire at Stanford. Much of my comeback from my third surgery was less about the wins and losses and my ranking, and just more about writing my own script and finishing on my own terms. It’s funny, because it took me years to figure out where I wanted to end it. I thought maybe I’ll try and get to the US Open or hope there’s an opportunity to retire there. Then, I woke up on Monday morning, and I was like, “Honestly, this is it. This is the perfect place.” It was a full circle moment of going to school and spending all four years there – getting my degree. It was a place that really shaped me in more ways than one. Much of what has happened in my career hasn’t been on my terms, but I’ve reached a point where I’m at peace with it a majority of the time. A lot of life lessons that I learned started to crystallize in my mind (more…)

August 24, 2023

#MyBTR “Despite the adversities of life I have never given up even without having my upper extremities. I keep overcoming all the obstacles that are put in front of meFear for me becomes a challenge, so it makes me want to continue showing that in this life, nothing is impossible. Tennis changed my life at the age of 7, when those who told me that since I didn’t have arms I couldn’t play it. Now look at the present time I am the number 1 Adaptive Tennis player in Chile, standing up to be number 8 in the world. If I had paid attention to those who said I could not do it, I would never have had so many achievements with tennis.Tennis has changed my life a lot because thanks to it I have been able to meet countries and people openly. My social circle is completely different at work, since I am a tennis teacher for young people with different abilities and that makes me very happy.The most painful thing off the field is that they judge you without knowing you, they say you cannot do it and they try to limit you, but I use that as (more…)

August 18, 2023

“I come from a motorsport family, which I think is the funniest part of my story. My dad used to be a motocross racer, and my grandpa used to be a rally driver. So tennis was never really in my family. I started racing motorcycles when I was three years old, and grew up racing. At around six, my dad had a dream of going on a road trip from Tallinn to Vladivostok. During this time, my mom put me in a tennis program. For a couple years I did both racing and tennis, and eventually chose tennis over racing. I vividly remember my first practice and the way I hit my forehead. I used to get so excited about making the ball spin. I guess I just always loved tennis for the sport it is – it stuck with from the beginning. And since I started, I wanted to play professionally. I don’t remember saying, but my mom remembers me telling her when I was seven or eight that I was going to win the US Open. I’ve always had that dream. Coming from Estonia, such a small country, it hasn’t been easy because we don’t have many tournaments. (more…)

August 10, 2023

“For a long time, I was scared of not succeeding. But in the last few months, I’ve learned that succeeding for me is waking up every morning and doing my best. If the result is good or not is another thing, but right now my focus is trying to do that every day and I’m okay with that. I think one of the things that separates me from other players is that I started working with my tennis and physical coaches when I was 12 years old. So I’ve been working with them for 10 years and I consider most of them my family. We’ve been through a lot of good and bad things together, and that’s built a strong relationship between us. In 2018, I’d say tennis changed my life. I was a good junior player and was able to quality for the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, which is my home. I had a really good week, and I found myself in the final with 5,000 people in the stadium watching my match. That was incredible After that, a lot of people knew me and there were a lot of expectations. It was tough to manage that (more…)

August 6, 2023

“I started having panic attacks when I was young. At first, they just sometimes happened. In 2021, though, I started to have them more often.I remember the final in Milan, I was playing the match with a panic attack. I ended up cramping *in the end* of second set because I was so tense. All I could do was tell myself to relax and sing to myself. In the end, I managed to control it and it was okay.During those times, I try to think about my *niece* . *She’s* four and the thought of *her* relaxes me and makes me happy. I think for guys of our generation it’s pretty normal to have these kinds of things. It’s just about managing it. It’s emotions, and I love to feel emotions, so for me it’s fine.Along with the panic attacks, in 2018, my back problems started. It was the year I was cracking inside the top 200. I had started the year around 800 and worked my way to 218 by the end of the season. And it was also the first year I played six months in a row.As a junior, I had injuries that had gotten in the (more…)