President of the Chilean Tennis Federation: “We will consider the possibility of having a permanent venue in the Coquimbo region”

Sergio Elías, President of the Chilean Tennis Federation talk to Jock on national tennis events. Discusses La Serena’s choice to play in Davis Cup series against Kazakhstan (tickets are still on sale) , the problems faced by the headquarters of the body that regulates white sports in the country and the five cases of sanctions for doping and match-fixing suffered by Chilean tennis players. He also admits that wants to build a stadium for 4,000 people in the north.

Why was the Davis Cup not replayed in Viña del Mar?

Unfortunately, next week the Chilean Derby is next to the venue we had thought of, which was the La Unión club, so we didn’t have the option of extending the stands towards the coast. Many have asked me why La Serena. Well, that’s the other alternative at sea level and who has places to do those readings for 10,000 people. The whole place had to be structured in terms of galleries and infrastructures. It is a relatively precarious club, with seven pitches and we make the most of the space available to the complex.

It remains to find spaces to play…

Absolutely. It’s really hard for us to believe that tennis has no fixed place. There is no place that has infrastructure and this is one of the issues that we will discuss with the government of Coquimbo. Ask if we can definitely have a permanent facility there for 4,000 as usually when Chile is local it’s convenient for a slow court and at sea level. This place should be established in the future as the center court of the Tennis Federation, rather than the national court for example. which is in the hands of the IND and is often used for concerts.

There are also problems with the headquarters of the Federation…

At Cerro Colorado, despite all the fighting, they took 11 fields away from us for a project that is still on hold. Now with the Municipality of Las Condes we are ready to sign an agreement to maintain use until the end of 2023 . In the meantime, we continue to look for other places, because at some point this site will have to be handed over. The Tennis Federation has only eight courts. Now the resolution to close Patricio Cornejo’s club is out. The Corfo Tennis Club is also closed. I don’t know what we want to do with a sports Chile if we have fewer and fewer sites.

Is there a place in mind?

We are already looking for land to build new tennis courts, but we want to exhaust the options first with Club Patricio Cornejo. It could be a good alternative. National Assets is researching with the Ministry of Sports the next use of this facility and it is possible that we non-profit entities, as entities dedicated to the practice of sport, could be a solution for both National Assets and the Ministry of Sports and moreover we are also solving a problem.

I changed it Yo Or on the subject… What position does the Federation take on the sanction of Chilean tennis players for doping and match-fixing in 2022?

70% of the cases that have occurred are people who no longer even belong to the active team in tennis. These are players who have been making 500, 600 or 700 for eight or ten years. The only case that affects us directly is that of Barbara Gatica who spoke to me several times. On the one hand, there is the doping that she marked, which goes through the consumption of meat from Colombia and I know that it was involuntary. And on the other, the case of party fixing. It happened to him in 2016 and it goes through Sebastián Rivera. There, Barbara fell for a matter of falling in love with a person who was encouraged by this Mr. Rivera to fall. With her, we do not escape responsibility Instead, we reached an agreement that Bárbara, from her point of view, would give educational talks to young girls so that they would know, from her experience, what it meant to fall into this match-fixing . That’s all we can do. This year, we are going to launch an educational plan, because we have to take care of the players who are going to enter professionalism.

Is betting the big problem in modern tennis?

Unfortunately, the betting issue has no possibility of being overturned, as it is ruled and regulated by the ITF itself. When a tournament takes place, we send people to see the event every day and when we see people who are unknown or who are watching the match with a computer, the Federation immediately gives the order to expel them from the tournament, because this they are the ones who send the signals.

It happened in Chile?

Two years ago this happened to us in Brisas de Chicureo. We discovered a person from abroad who came with such intentions and was then refused entry. We realized why a man nobody knows appears, to play a doubles and he arrives a week before the start of the tournament. It was the last time.