Despite the fact that the event offers two Olympic quotas, the national tennis player decided to withdraw from the Pan American Games to prioritize his schedule and regain positions in the ranking, after very irregular years that forced him to make many changes.
The last two years have been very complex for Christian Garin the national tennis player who had to carry the weight of the replacement on his shoulders after the retirement of Fernando González, and who became 17th in the world in 2021. Precisely, this moment of success in the ranking was accompanied by a difficult decision for him: withdraw at the last minute from the Tokyo Olympics, even though he had already said yes to the Olympic Committee. Coincidence or not, the spiral of irregularities which today places him outside the top 100 (he started the week 102nd) is accentuated.
“Due to the instability of this year (where I had to withdraw from the Australian Open due to injury and my subsequent infection with Covid 19) and added to the fact that the conditions established did not allow me will not allow you to live the true experience of what the Olympic Games mean. that’s why I made this decision,” he explained at the time.
The reasons given by the tennis player did not go down well with his fellow athletes. He received merciless criticism from social media users; from the Tennis Federation, which got angry when “they discovered it thanks to social networks”; and of the COCh itself, which through a publication came to harshly question it, “I deeply regret” the player’s decision and thank the athletes who were present, despite the restrictions. From there, relations became strained.
With Santiago 2023 in its sights, the Olympic Committee turned to Gago to convince him to be part of the delegation that will represent the country in October. He did this through a letter, which did not receive much response from the tennis player. Then, the Tennis Federation was in charge of managing the payroll and there, definitively, the number two in the country excluded the possibility participate in the Pan American Games , the competition which This does not give points for the ranking, but it gives two places at Paris 2024.
The reason given is that He chose to prioritize his calendar to be able to quickly return to the top 100, access directly to the next Australian Open and also bet on participation in the Masters 1000 at the end of the season. which give you the opportunity to obtain significant financial returns if, for example, you are among the top 30 players who played in these events during the year.
Changes in the banking sector
After suffering his worst defeat in the Davis Cup (6-0, 6-1 defeat against the Slovakian Norbert Gombos), Garin decided to break off his relationship with the Argentinian Franco Davin and try to regroup with a man he trusted like Jorge Aguilar. The relationship with Manimal lasted between October 2021 and March 2022, where she failed to raise her head.
After the end of this relationship, the prestigious Spanish coach Pepe Vendrell , responsible for bringing his compatriot Roberto Bautista into the top ten, took over the management of the Chilean. The results were not long in coming: a semi-final in Houston, quarter-finals at the Masters 1000 in Rome and a historic passage to the round of 16 at Wimbledon , which did not deliver any points that year. Everything indicated that the good times were going to return. However, two eliminations from the start in Gstaad and Kitzbühel, and another in the second round of the US Open, condemned the fate of the famous coach.
In an interview with Deportivo, the Hispanic admitted that he did not understand the causes of the breakup. “I have to tell you, I didn’t feel like the relationship was there to make that decision. Yes, it’s true that we had some wear and tear due to the intensity of the first months of work, But I think if he really believed in the project, it was time to close the group, evaluate what we had structured with the people around him and get started. he admitted.
In a bad emotional moment, Garin decided to rebuild his relationship with Andrés Schneiter, the coach who took him to the top 20. At the time of the breakup, the Chilean said that “he was not learning” with the trans-Andean coach, so the return surprised the tennis world. The duo’s idea was to return to the tennis elite. However, it was complex.
A year with ups and downs
In 2023, the trend has not been the best either. El Tanque had a weak start to the year, which he corrected thanks to his performances at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. where he reached the round of 16 and the third round respectively, coming from quality. He then reached the quarter-finals in Houston and Munich and the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 in Madrid and Rome. However, A broken rib prevented him from playing at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, which is why he ended up falling out of the top 100.
On his return from injury, he combined the good and the bad, as he reached the round of 16 in Hamburg, after passing the qualifications, and fell in the first round of the quality of the US Open. In the Davis Cup, he won a hard-fought victory against the Swede. Léo Borg (334th) and lost to the Italian Matteo Arnaldi (47th) , in a match that was well underway. But the most worrying thing was the message he left after this setback. “It’s frustrating, because I try every day I train, every day I am more professional and I work better. But I don’t win these kinds of games. . Playing the Davis Cup for Chile is a source of pride and losing these kinds of games hurts “, he admitted.
The day after this statement, he decided to withdraw from the important key against Canada. There, Massú’s explanation was that the tennis player told him that he was experiencing some physical discomfort and that he preferred another teammate to play. This is how Alejandro Tabilo entered, falling against Alexis Galarneau. What is striking is that, during the course of the series, Gago had time to denounce an Instagram user who asked him to retire because he was “bad”, in a situation that is not new to him, since on several occasions he has reported attacks on social networks, especially when he had to represent Chile in an event. In fact, on several occasions the pressure of playing at home has caused great complications.
Today, now recovered from his physical discomfort, Garin won with difficulty in his singles debut against the 903rd in the world at the ATP 250 in Zhuhai where he is also entered in doubles and hopes to start returning to the level that led him to win five ATP titles and be among the best on tour.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
