Turning 24 years old last August, Genaro Olivieri claims to be living “his best moment” as a professional tennis player.
The athlete born in Bragado, who will debut today at the Challenger in Buenos Aires, at the Racket Club in the Palermo neighborhood, is currently ranked 255th in the international ranking of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) and this season he lived the experience to compete in the qualifying rounds of Wimbledon and the US Open, two of the four Grand Slams, the most important tournaments in the world.
In dialogue with Democracia, Olivieri assured that his goal for the future is clear: to break the barrier of the top 100 in the ranking, which would mean a hinge in his career as a tennis player. And to achieve this, he also drew a time horizon. “My goal is at the end of next year to be in the top 100, it’s very challenging, but I know I have to go for it,” she said.
“This year has been the best of my career so far. I achieved my best ranking and played two Grand Slam qualifiers, that shows that I am growing in tennis, beyond the fact that it is not yet being reflected in results,” he said.
“I feel like I’m playing very well, it’s all a matter of concretizing the opportunities that come my way in important games. If I want to keep climbing, that’s the next step,” he added.
This week, at the Racket, he will have a new opportunity to demonstrate his potential to the local public and continue nurturing his dream of joining the elite of the so-called “white sport”.
“Playing a Challenger in Buenos Aires is very special, my friends and family will come to see me, it will be played at night, in a large stadium of a beautiful club like Racket”, he was enthusiastic, in the run-up to his debut, against the youthful compatriot Juan Bautista Torres, at 7:20 p.m., on the central court.
“It is the maximum”
Despite not having made it to the main draw, Olivieri experienced the importance of the Grand Slams from within, something he had already experienced in 2016, at the end of his youth stage.
At Wimbledon, a tournament that takes place in London, England, on a grass surface, he fell in the first round of qualifying against the Brazilian Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida. Later, in the qualy of the US Open, which is played in New York, on cement, his executioner was the experienced Italian Roberto Marcora.
However, even when the results were not what he imagined, the tennis player from Bragado took with him the pride of having fulfilled one of his dreams, when he began his path at an early age, on the courts of the Mariano Moreno and Bragado Clubs.
“Being in a Grand Slam is the best. The previous weeks, you already live differently, you start to feel the nerves and the adrenaline of being there. For my part, I tried to enjoy it to the fullest, because in those tournaments everything is perfect , the organization is perfect. Reaching the most important tournaments in the world is an injection of extra motivation”, he reflected.
And he continued: “At Wimbledon, the experience was a bit strange, because I had not prepared for the tournament, I went directly after a tournament that I had played the previous week on clay. On the other hand, for the US Open I had prepared myself, but nerves sometimes play tricks and I couldn’t find a way around it. At the end of the day, it’s about understanding that the competition is the same everywhere, that while the whole framework around the Grand Slams is beautiful, a Once you enter the field, you have to put all that aside and give your best on the field”.
What’s missing
Although the present finds him among the best 260 best tennis players on the planet, Olivieri admits that the gap with the top 100 is still wide, although he is convinced of the points of his game that he must improve to continue closing the gap.
“I think there are two big differences: on the one hand, perseverance at the level; and, on the other, knowing how to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in games and being forceful in those moments,” he explained.
Along these lines, he gave as an example the match he lost last week at the Villa María Challenger, Córdoba, against rising Juan Manuel Cerúdolo (champion of the 2021 edition of the Córdoba Open, an ATP 250 tournament), by 7/6 6 /3.
“He is in the top 100, but I was able to play at a great level. I had a set point and I couldn’t take advantage of it, I took 5/4 and then 6/5, and I lost it in the tiebreak. And then, in the second, I started winning 3 to 0, and I ended up losing it 6/3. So, the difference is in the forcefulness, in taking advantage of the opportunities, and in the ability to play at the best level for a longer time”, he acknowledged.
However, beyond the narrow defeat, Olivieri valued the fact that, in recent years, the number of Challengers-level tournaments in South America has grown, which allows him to compete against world-class rivals more frequently, although he warned that Latino players continue to be at a relative “disadvantage” in relation to the conditions of Europeans and North Americans.
“The road is harder, although now many more tournaments are being organized, thanks to the South American Legion Circuit-Dove Men Care. That changed everything and allowed more Latin Americans to fight near the Top 100,” he said.
“Even so, it is clear that we are still at a disadvantage, because the four Grand Slams are played outside of Latin America and the largest number of tournaments are in Europe or the United States. They are distant, expensive places and at some point you have to step on them to be able to compete. And when you travel there, you can’t just go and come back, you have to spend six weeks, which costs a lot on a mental and emotional level. But this is how it is, it touched us, we were born here and we have to accept it, “he assured.
The memory of the ITF Junín
In 2019, tennis in Junín experienced a historic event, when it managed to host a professional tournament in the Futures category of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), on the courts of Club Atlético Sarmiento.
The championship, which is one step lower in relation to the Challengers category, had the director of the Junín Tennis Training Center, Leandro Verón, among its organizers, and Olivieri, from Braga, among the registered players.
“The experience of playing in Junín was very good. I remember that, during that whole week, I slept at my house, in Bragado, and traveled in the morning to go play. I have nice memories of that tournament, they received us very well and El Negro (Verón) worked full time,” he said, without closing the door on the possibility of competing again in the city in the future.
“It is very difficult to organize a Futures. I hope it will be held again in Junín, although I hope to be in a high ranking and not have to play it. But if a Challenger were to be held, without a doubt I would go,” he concluded.
