Pablo Carreño has to start from scratch after a year in which he has barely been able to play. The Spaniard decides to return in the final phase of the Challenger circuit season to gain pace for the coming months, in which he hopes to feel much better, as he tells us in an exclusive interview at the Challenger Málaga Open 2023.
The Spaniard, now number 195 in the ATP Rankings, had not competed since February 13 as a result of an injury to his right elbow with which he played throughout the initial phase of the season, until he reached the limit to seek a solution. These discomforts began in November 2022 during the Davis Cup and prevented Pablo Carreno (Gijón, 1991) prepare for the 2023 season. He achieved victory in the first round of the Australian Open, but two defeats followed, at which point he decided to stop.
It has been almost eight months to see him play a match again, although Pablo has fought to resume competition throughout the year, with negative results so far. Although these discomforts are still present, Carreño made his competitive reappearance in the Alicante Ferrero Challenger, a tournament in which he lost his debut against Pedro Martínez Portero in two sets. Without great pretensions, the Asturian seeks to continue adding minutes on the slopes in the Challenger circuit. Pablo opens up exclusively with Break Point about what these months have been like, about the injury and about his short-term goals before his debut in the Málaga Open 2023.
How have you lived this year without hardly playing games?
It’s a complicated year, apart from that, I haven’t been unemployed. I have continued training, trying to recover. At times I have been unemployed, but not more than four weeks. I have been recovering and it seemed like I was going well, but then it got worse and I had to stop again, I came back again… It has been especially hard mentally because it seemed like I would be able to compete and then I wouldn’t. I tried to come back in Indian Wells, then come back in Madrid, then in Winston-Salem, and in the end it was last week (at the Alicante Ferrero Challenger).
How does it feel to be back on Challenger and in a place you know so well?
I also played a little bit of last week’s tournament because it was played at the academy where I train and we knew that it wasn’t going to be perfect to compete for victory, but you have to start at some point. The elbow also has to get used to the level of competition, which is not the same as training. I would have liked to have done better because it is a place that I am very fond of and where they love me and support me a lot, but I think the feeling was not bad at all, let’s see if it continues like this.
Does your elbow still hurt?
Yes, it bothers me, especially when I finish playing and when I rest, it bothers me less. For now, it seems that the pain is controlled, the next day I can play again. I’m going to have to live with the pain for at least a while and hopefully it will adapt and disappear.
Last year you won in Canada and this year your goal was to get closer to the Top 10, although you haven’t been able to fight for it.
I’m fighting to finish in the Top 1,000 (laughs). It has been a lost year, a very difficult year. In the end we cannot assess the objectives if I have achieved them or not because I have not even been able to try. In that aspect I am calm because it has not been a bad year, it simply has not been.
What do you take positive from the injury?
Few things right now. Perhaps on a personal level I have had more time for myself, to be with my family, with my wife, and wanting to get something positive out of it. The truth is that it has been a very complicated year with very few positive things. Many years ago I had a very serious back injury, before becoming a professional as I am now, and there have been different points of view. Before I was 19 years old, now I’m 32 and it’s clear that I’m not at the same point in my career.
Maybe now it helps you a little to realize that tennis is not the only thing in life. When I was 19 years old, my only goal was to compete again, to play again at any cost. Now the vision I have is different. I prioritize much more recovering well than returning as soon as possible or being able to enjoy a life outside of tennis that was different before.
What has been the hardest moment in these months of injury?
There have been many bad moments. The worst is when it seemed like I was going to compete, I set a date to return and I saw that I was not going to meet it, that I was not going to be able to, because the elbow did not react well. You get your hopes up, you set a goal to train and motivate yourself for that and in the end you can’t do it. It’s a very hard thing, especially if it happens to you several times. Now the pain is not the same. The treatment seems to have improved me. Being pain-free is very complicated, few tennis players play a match 100% pain-free. After an injury like this, the doctors tell me that something is going to hurt, that you have to get used to it. Maybe one day it will hurt more and another day less, it will depend on the weather, the balls we play with… Let’s hope it gets less every day.
Has the constant changing of balls had any influence on your injury?
I’m sure the balls have something to do with my injury. For example, before Roland Garros I was training with some balls at the Academy to recover from the injury and it was going well, I was playing sets, and I switched to the Roland Garros balls to start training with them and after 20 minutes I had to stop because It had become inflamed again. It is clear that the balls are very different, and the continuous change of balls has an influence.
Last week we played with one brand, this week we played with another… On the Challenger circuit it is even worse, because more are changed, but on the ATP circuit a lot of balls are also changed. We don’t even do two tournaments with practically the same ones. On the same Australian or clay court tour you can change the brand of balls. This influences more injuries.
Do you have any goals for 2024?
Being able to play. The goal is to be able to play, for the injury to go well, for me to respect myself, for me to be able to feel like a tennis player again and return to the circuit again, to be able to do it fully, to try to make it go as well as possible.
You won a bronze medal in Tokyo, do you have the Olympic Games marked on your calendar?
I would like to be in Paris, in the end the Olympic Games are very important. I was only able to play a few, those in Tokyo, and I got a medal, and I would like to be able to enjoy more normal Olympic Games. In Tokyo there was no audience, I didn’t have people around. I would love to enjoy the Olympic Games with the public, with my family and with everyone supporting me, it will surely be something very nice to experience.
What has surprised you most about the ATP circuit this season?
I couldn’t tell you, honestly. Djokovic has continued as he was, Carlos has maintained the level that he had been having last year. Maybe that might surprise someone, but not me. There have been young players like Sinner, who seems to have taken a little step further, Rune, who, although he hasn’t won many games in recent months, has also improved… Everything has been more or less similar.
How do you face your debut at the Malaga Challenger?
I don’t have any expectations regarding results. I just want to be able to play, enjoy the court and not have my elbow bother me, continue adding hours on the court, which is what I need now.
2023-10-09 19:59:51
#Interview #Pablo #Carreño #return #competition
