The Inspiring Journey of Bernabé Zapata: From Humble Beginnings to the Elite of Tennis

The story of Bernabé Zapata is not that of just another tennis player. Born in Valencia in 1997 into a humble family, there has never been enough money in his house. He lived with his parents, high school teachers, and his three brothers and sisters. I had a dream: to be a professional tennis player. The problem is that it is an expensive dream, very expensive, within the reach of few pockets.. Hence he uses the word “miracle” to define his rise to the elite.

Why although he has already won almost two million eurosalthough he is installed in the top 50 and accessing prizes such as the 69,000 euros that he pocketed a few weeks ago for losing in the first round of Roland Garros, Bernabé Zapata He doesn’t forget where he comes from. That at 18 years old he was traveling without a coach and by bus, that his parents were about to ask for a loan when he was 21 years old because his pockets were empty.

How does the story of Bernabé Zapata begin?

I am a boy from a humble family from Valencia. I started playing tennis because my older brother signed up and my parents ended up putting me at the Sporting school when I was 5 years old. I was good at it and when I was 11, Sporting began to support me financially to go out and play. It went very well and at 16 years old and at the level I had, we had to decide whether to bet on tennis or not. I had zero money from my family to be able to try it and Sporting continued to help me boost my career. I started playing Futures in Spain because I didn’t have money to play the junior circuit. When I was 18, I was runner-up in Europe and found some sponsors, but I continued traveling alone every week because I couldn’t afford a coach.

¿A What do you mean when you talk about a humble family?

My parents are high school teachers, ESO, and we are four brothers. It is complicated, very difficult, to invest to be a professional tennis player. Think that at 15 or 16 years old you need 5,000 euros a month just for tennis. That is, about 50,000 euros a year to be able to try a good futures calendar and some Challengers.

Do you think you value things differently from other tennis players?

That makes you a humble person because you know that no one has given you anything. You know that everything costs a lot and makes you develop a quite strong personality. It is not ideal, because it means surviving with what you have and it makes you better and mature later, because you are traveling alone. If tennis is a solitary sport, add traveling without a coach. But I haven’t changed anything, I’m still the same boy from Valencia, I live there and I’m in love with the city.

Could you give an example of the precariousness in which you lived?

I could tell you that I went to a Futures tournament from Valencia to Bilbao by bus because I had less than a thousand euros left in my account. To save 100 or 150 euros on the flight cost, I went alone by bus and without a coach. He was 18 years old and was around 900 in the ATP ranking. The following week I won my first Futures in Gandía and won a thousand euros.

I imagine these are moments of great tension.

Yes, they were very hard moments. Later, at 21 years old, a week before passing my first qualifying in the ATP category I had about 1,500 euros in my account. My father didn’t tell me, but I knew it. He was 270th in the world and had 1,500 euros. Imagine how things were. It was the month of May and I had lost every game since January and was already traveling the world. I didn’t stop losing money. But it was what I had to do, invest. My parents were about to ask for a loan from the bank, but luckily the following week I won 7,000 euros in Geneva and I started to recover a little.

How proud are your parents when they see you now in a Grand Slam?

They have always told me that they are very proud. I feel very grateful as a son because I have never been pressured to be professional. They told me to take my path and that has made me very calm when trying.

Do they travel with you?

Until last year they had never traveled and came to Roland Garros. This year they have come to Madrid and they are going to come to the US Open as an exceptional gift. For them it is a dream because they have never left Europe.

Do you think that the fact that there are tennis players of the stature of Nadal or Alcaraz means that a player like you who is in the top 50 is valued less?

We are lucky as a country to have players like Rafa, Moyà, Ferrero, Ferru or now Carlitos. They have been in the top 5 for so long that a player who was in 20 or 25 seemed like he wasn’t there. On the one hand, it is very positive to have those players, but on the other hand it covers the rest of us a bit.

It always hurts to lose, have you learned to manage defeats?

I have learned that you have to put things into perspective. When I lost to Schwartzman I left the court feeling like shit, I had stomach pains and mentally you come out feeling like shit, just like that. In tennis, good moments last very little and we must not lose perspective of things.

Fulfill a dream?

Last year I fulfilled one of them, which was to try the 2003 Chateau Margaux, a spectacular wine. Another dream I have is to spend an entire Grand Prix with an accreditation in the paddock. And at a tennis level, of course I would like to be a better player, but I don’t want to dream because in the end I think that I have already gone further than I imagined. Everything you get now will be a gift.

Relevo originally published this report on July 28, 2023 and has recovered it as one of the most read stories of the year.

Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …

2023-12-26 08:20:56
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