The main frame of Buenos Aires Challenger It started this Monday at the Racket de Palermo with a lot of Argentine participation, but an unexpected guest stole the attention. The 2016 Davis Cup champion occupied court 9 of the club for more than an hour and a half with his coach Fabian Blenginowhom he defined almost like a father, and with Tomas Farjat like sparring.
Pella has not played since October 19 last year when she withdrew from the first round of the Moscow tournament. A chronic injury to his right knee, plus the situation with gamblers, led him to take time away from the courts. “I have no cartilage in my knee and the joint began to function very poorly. The only thing I can do is strengthen the area and work the quads, hamstrings and glutes. It hurts, but I try”he tells Scope after his practice for the day.
The presence of the former World No. 20 in the Palermo club was quickly noted. While the main draw of the Buenos Aires Challenger opened, dozens of fans came to follow the Bahiense. He played his first set in more than 11 months against Farjat, and he assures that the ailment did not affect him like it did at the beginning of the year.
For Pella there is no clinical solution, but palliative treatments that help him. At the end of last year he intensified his situation and the pain, he assures, “practically did not let me walk inside the court”. “I decided to take some time. A month later I found out that I was going to be a father. Everything came together so that I would step aside for a while,” she argues.
After a talk with his kinesiologist and some interconsultations, he understood that the solution was to modify some behaviors: “I had to start training my knee from scratch, from getting up from a chair to walking differently. Now I am better, but I had punctures, infiltrations, platelet-rich plasma, which was what helped me”.
– Did you think about leaving everything and dedicating yourself to your family?
– Yes, there was a moment, but only because of the pain, not because I didn’t feel like it. I started training in April so as not to lose what little I had left and my knee began to hurt very badly. I talked about it with my kinesiologist and told him that I didn’t play anymore because I couldn’t train well, it hurt even to get out of bed.
– Between the injury, the situation in Moscow and fatherhood, what space is left for tennis?
– I talk about it with everyone around me: I gave my life to tennis practically since I was born. Everyone in my family played and since I can remember I have trained to be a professional. At the end of last year I thought: how much more time of my life am I going to dedicate to tennis? There I clicked. And I was lucky that after a month I found out that I was going to be a father, which helped me that my decision did not weigh me down.
Pella, fatherhood and tennis
“Now that I am a father, I want to go back, to show my daughter, even if she doesn’t understand anything, that if you feel like it, you can play again, after a year, despite the pain. I’m trying, I’m happy, I feel like I’m playing well for the time I’ve been out.”says the champion of São Paulo 2019.
Arianna Pella Demner was born in mid-July, the fruit of her relationship with the model and influencer Stephanie Demner. The Bahian talks about his daughter and shows off another face, with a full smile and sparkles in his eyes. “I am very happy with fatherhood. Everyone tells you that it changes your life, but you need to have a child to feel it”, he reveals.
– How do you live the fact of being a father?
– I sleep very well, which I didn’t expect, and it’s more difficult during the day, because of my stomachaches and things like that. We are adapting to the baby but we have immense happiness.
– Do you give yourself time to watch tennis?
– I saw something of the Villa María Challenger (NdR: it was played last week) and the US Open, but generally not because I feel that I suffer along with the players and I don’t want to suffer more. I think I know how sorry they are, for what they are going through, no matter how much they hide it. I already experienced it as playing and on TV I don’t want to experience it anymore.
– Do you set deadlines to return?
– The idea is to try to have some tournaments before Australia, but to come back with pain, with trips, feeling that I don’t feel good and playing with unbearable pain, I prefer to stay at home until it doesn’t hurt or decide that it doesn’t work. I’m aiming to reach the year-end challengers, I would love to, they are tournaments that I won or made finals and I haven’t played them for a thousand years.
– Is there life outside of sport?
– This stop I thought was going to be totally different, but I found myself again with my family, with my friends, with a standard of living that is normal, and normal is nice too. Not everything is traveling, hotels, tournaments. Being a normal human being is spectacular. If I have one more chance, I’m going to try to take advantage of it, and if not, I’m happy to stay at home, eat with my family.
– Surely in that time you learned to relax from pressures and routines
– I started for that, I trained two days a week, I did physical training every day, regenerative, preventive, but a couple of months ago I started training every day. The routine is very hard, for everyone. Getting up at such a time to do a physical, that’s why the baby cried all night… you have to get used to it, but all for trying to play for another year.
The almost two hours of intensity of his training with Farjat show another stage for Pella. The next few weeks will be crucial for him. But he has everything clear about the future: I’m doing everything possible to come back, it’s difficult, but I’m going to give him a chance. “If I can, fine, and if not, I discovered a life outside of tennis that is beautiful, and if I have to say bye, I’m not going to feel bad”.
