Gustavo Fernández, from spending the New Year hospitalized for a health problem to making his debut winning

Although she had been unable to walk since she was a year and a half, she always felt “capable of doing absolutely anything” and was never limited. After winning eight Grand Slam titles (five in singles) and spending a decade in the super elite of the adapted tennisthe Argentinian Gustavo Fernandez (29 years old) faces a new season with the aim of “enjoying”.

A spinal cord heart attack left him paralyzed from the waist down, but that did not stop him from following in the footsteps of his father, basketball player Gustavo Ismael. Lobo Fernández, and becoming a professional athlete, until becoming the Argentine Paralympic flag bearer at the Rio 2016 Games. ”I was very lucky to have a family that fully trusted me, whatever I decided. If I wanted to do a certain thing, regardless of whether society was used to it or not, they had the intelligence and open-mindedness to say: ‘Try it.’ That’s how it all started. If they put the limit on you right away, without trying it or not, it’s difficult to develop,” said the Cordovan from Río Tercero to the AFP agency, in Melbourne, after debuting at the Australian Open.

His horizons were so broad that when a school teacher asked the school students what they wanted to be when they grew up, Lobito replied that his dream was to be a soccer player. “Footballer, obviously, I couldn’t be, but neither the teacher, nor my mother, nor the people around were horrified. As a boy I always felt capable of doing absolutely everything, ”he recalled with a smile.

The victory of Fernández (number 2 in the world) against the Dutch Ruben Spaargaren (5th) by 6-3 and 6-2, in the round of 16 of the first major of the season, had extra value. The Argentinian spent a week (New Year included) admitted to a Buenos Aires hospital for an abscess in the larynx That made him uneasy and the strong preseason slowed him down. During those days of hospitalization she had a hard time: it was difficult for them to find the exact diagnosis, she had a fever, difficulties swallowing and they left him hospitalized to give him an intravenous antibiotic. But today he is already recovered, celebrating playing in the Australian Open, one of his favorite tournaments, which he won twice (2017 and 2019).

Tonight, from 9:00 p.m. in our country (ESPN and Star+), Gusti will face his friend and doubles partner, the Spanish Martín De la Puente (7th), for the pass to the semifinals.

With dyed blonde hair, after a promise made during the Qatar 2022 World Cup won by the Argentine team, the tennis player begins his tenth season in Melbourne in the top 10. After the recent announcement of the retirement of Shingo Kunieda, the best tennis player adapted from all times, Gusti faces the year with the intention of “continuing to grow” and enjoying what he does: “I really like what I do and many times, by being aware of the results, wanting to be number one, of wanting Grand Slams, one loses sight of what is most important”.

During this time in the elite, Fernández was a direct witness of the professionalization of wheelchair tennis, especially in its athletes and, although with “slower progress”, in the International Tennis Federation. With a nutritionist, mental trainer, and kinesiologist, the preparation of this muscular tennis player, whose arm has nothing to envy to Rafael Nadal’s, is not far from that of another professional athlete. ”My day to day is absolutely like that of any professional tennis player: two or three hours of tennis, two hours in the gym, physical preparation [su PF es Matías Tettamanzi]hour and a half or two of kinesiology [su kinesiólogo desde chico es Juan Carlos Varela]… It’s all in pursuit of tennis. What I have are fewer financial resources to do certain things the way I would like to,” said Fernández, trained by Fernando San Martín and Jonathan Abadie.

“Gap too big”

At the Australian Open, the singles draw winners will win A$2,975,000 (about US$2.1 million). The wheelchair tennis prize is set at A$100,000. “It’s clear that we can’t and we don’t want to charge the same as people who play standing up, because we don’t generate the same and probably never offer the same show, but the gap is too big,” said Fernández.

“I don’t have the need to be rich, to have millions and millions, I don’t have that illusion. But I would like to have a little more stability. If I retire tomorrow, I have to go to work, ”she expanded.

Summary of the victory of Lobito Fernández

Moreno, the first Argentine in a major

Maria Florence Moreno, 33 years old and 14th in the ITF world singles ranking, became the first Argentine to compete in a women’s tennis main draw adapted from a Grand Slam. In Australia, the athlete born in Cañuelas fell in the first round against Dana Mathewson (USA; 10th) 6-3, 6-2, in 58 minutes.

Moreno had already made wheelchair tennis history in Argentina by reaching the Top Ten in doubles. In May of last year he was 10th.

Today, Moreno is the third best ranked South American in singles, behind the Colombian Angélica Bernal (11th) and the Chilean Macarena Cabrillana (12th).

THE NATION