The decentralization of tennis by Gonzalo López

Gonzalo López recovers his opinion column on industriadeltenis.com with an article in which he talks about the decentralization of tennis from the point of view of Barcelona, ​​which for many years has been the epicenter of tennis in Spain.

We are not going to discover the wealth of Spanish tennis, immense, but if we look at it with the perspective of time, there is a fact that I have been thinking about for a long time and I cannot understand it completely well, let’s see:

The development and origin of competitive players who have reached professionalism in our country has historically centered on Barcelona, ​​followed by Valencia, Alicante and Madrid, practically all the players who reached professionalism came from these regions, although a high percentage were natives of Barcelona or areas of influence and those who were not from this city emigrated for periods, longer or shorter, to this square for its optimal development because it enjoyed an ideal context for such a task.

You only need to take a look at the ranking with a perspective in time to realize this fact.

But this is no longer the case, the Davidovichs, Martínez-Porteros, Taberner and the banner of the new wave of players Carlos Alcaraz, are no longer originally from Barcelona nor have they needed its infrastructure to progress in their careers or to fully develop them, they have not trained In Barcelona, ​​or minimally, our Alcaraz phenomenon has developed fully without needing it, even Davidovich have found this possibility in Malaga, proving to be a new solvent center to create an international player, so …

What is the most worrisome for Barcelona?

That none of them are from there !!!!

This leads me to draw three conclusions:

1. That tennis has evolved a lot in the last 15/20 years in other regions of Spain, creating highly qualified structures to improve players by decentralizing the assembly line that has been Barcelona for many years.

• Many national boys, many I would say, no longer choose Barcelona as a destination to undertake the career of professionalism, but instead go to these other centers, such as Valencia, Alicante or Madrid, or simply stay in their regions of origin. positive that reflects the growth of this great wealth of our tennis.

• What has happened and what is happening in Barcelona?

It has been some time since there has been a young player born and fully developed in Barcelona, ​​Albert Ramos is perhaps the last and is in a veteran stage of his very, very solvent sports career, this fact here exposed is even reflected in lower categories where There is no longer a superiority in numbers as in the past, when a long time ago of 16 players in the second round of the U-14 of Spain, 12 were Catalans, 3 Valencians / Alicante and some from the rest of Spain, now this distribution has changed.

I am not claiming that Barcelona is better than other places, I think that the work done in these places is enormous and I am proud of this decentralization due to the effort made by trainers / coaches / and schools, many of them great friends of mine, to improve that assembly line. With all the parallel services that are required, an entrepreneurship movement worthy of praise, they have believed it and have put all their efforts into pushing new generations, but …

…. One thing does not remove the other…

Although it continues to enjoy an ideal context to travel the path to professionalism successfully, which has not changed …

Why this lack of players, or at least the same statistical number in relation to the volume of practitioners, with high competitiveness from Barcelona as in the past?

What is happening with tennis in its professional aspect in Barcelona?

Sure there are multiple causes, complex answer …

I open debate !!!!! Always with the desire to understand and understand a sporting movement on a world scale in a city that is declining as the cradle of professional players.

Greetings to all