Everyone has the memory of a Fernando Gonzalez winner on the courts, but he also had several actions off them, where the best known was the day he stood up to the Chilean Tennis Federation and threatened to abandon his representation in the Davis Cup if there were not a series of modifications within the entity, among which stood out the parity in the distribution of the profits obtained.
To do this, we must go back in time and locate ourselves in the year 2009, when the Chilean team had achieved its return to the World Group of the Davis Cup, but after knowing that José Hinzpeter –president of the FTCH at that time– wanted to reduce the percentage that belonged to each tennis player, “Feña” exploded and issued a statement on his website, announcing that he was stepping aside in case the boss continued in office. Therefore, after the letter, several national colleagues came out to support Fernando Gonzalez.
After learning of the decision of the “Bombardero de La Reina” to let go of the Federation’s hand, twenty people including tennis players, former tennis players and coaches issued a new statement to give their full support to the Olympic medalist. “The signatories, in our capacity as professional tennis players and ex-tennis players, who live firsthand the rigors of the circuit without federative financial supportwe want to express that we sympathize and support Fernando Gonzalez in this initiative in pursuit of Chilean sports”, they began.
Along the same lines, in the letter delivered by all the signatories, they requested the dismissal of Hinzpeter along with that of all his collaborators, since they did not agree with the decisions they made. “It is not logical that the fate of Chilean tennis is decided by only 16 people (…) and the last 15 years of achievements have not been taken advantage of to massify tennis. We request the departure of the current board of directors of the Tennis Federation for not being representative of the interests of Chilean tennis players”, they sentenced.
The unusual anecdote in Europe
Fernando Gonzalez Like all tennis players, they travel thousands of kilometers throughout their career to play each of the tournaments they have scheduled. For this reason, it is typical for the protagonists to have several anecdotes to tell about unprecedented situations that happened to each of their trips. In this sense, “Feña” recounted the day he got lost in the streets of London when he was a junior.
“There are several, but I remember when I got lost in London. She was 16 years old and was going round and round lost. I was like three hours walking. And taking a taxi there is not cheap. In addition, at that age, money had to be taken care of a lot,” the Chilean told the “Terra” portal in 2007 after reaching the Australian Open final.
