Stick so much, live on the edge. The adrenaline of the competition. Eva Fernández Brugués (Figueres, 1986) spent many years between absolute suffering and the maximum happiness to be professional tennis player. “It’s very distressing, but in few situations can you feel that you live life so intensely. The dedication to train every day and spend hours and hours giving your best… It’s curious”, he says. The figuerenca woman met the sweetest side of tennis, when the 2009 achieved its best ranking with the site 185 WTA, and the cruelest, when that same year she was treated for a shoulder injury that halted her projection. “It was a very hard blow because he had been fighting for that all his life. I got frustrated. I spent more than six hours a day in recovery, but I couldn’t. I myself could see that it was not going well. I would start the games in full swing, desperate to get back to my best, and instead, the days would go by and I would drop positions. It was very hard”, he admits. A subsequent hip injury was the trigger to hang up the racket 2013. “I didn’t want to go through the same thing again. We’ve come this far, I said to myself.” Currently, Eva is Teacher of Training Cycles and works in an institute ofHospitalet de Llobregat. He has recently passed the competitions, applying “the effort and the spirit of daily improvement” that tennis has taught him.
“You could make a living from tennis, but you had to be among the first 200 of the WTA ranking and also play in European leagues. It was many, many weeks in a row stringing games together because during the week you went to the tournaments and if, for example, you were eliminated on Friday, you had to be available for the European leagues on Saturday. Only with the tournaments, it was very fair or practically in the negative”, he says. Ten years after leaving, Eva is surprised: “I would never have imagined being a teacher, it was unthinkable”: “Unfortunately, I knew that, unless you get very high, high competition sport ends soon and life goes on. I studied right, but my profession had always been another (tennis). Joining the world of work was complicated, I worked as a trainer and also tried some offices. It wasn’t for me. It’s hard to find the way… Until one day, I decided to do a master’s degree in teaching. It amazes me how rewarding and fulfilling it is to teach. It seemed like the world was ending after tennis and it wasn’t. It’s a personal challenge that I have.”
In this regard, the Figueres woman celebrates that “society is increasingly trusting women’s tennis”: “It is true that social networks allow you to reach more people, but tennis players now have more media coverage. I think women’s football is opening the doors for us to other sports. Everything is a wheel. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but if we manage to be able to dedicate ourselves exclusively to a sport without having to have another job to support us, it will be a big step forward. If you have the income to dedicate yourself exclusively to something, you will be able to improve because you will only be focused on that. If not, it’s very difficult.”
The accumulation of matches took its toll on Eva, chaining one injury after another. “I remember going through difficult times. Luckily, I’ve always had the support of my family and my coaches. In Frank Amused in a Jordi Font they almost played me as a parent. The personal bond that is created is very great. I had one too psychologist, which helped me make the effort not to look at the ranking. It was inevitable not to look at him. After the shoulder injury, he had to start again without confidence or competitive pace, with discomfort and fear of a relapse. I never got back to the same level of confidence and play. We push our bodies to the limit and we end up physically worn out”, he reasons.
But there were also many good moments like those Grand Slam. Between 2009 and 2010 he participated in theUS Open -twice- and at Roland Garros. “I experienced them as a reward for the effort of my whole life. I wanted to win, although the fact of being there and competing with the best already made it worth it. He shared a dressing room with the Williams sisters…”, highlights. At the same time, he remembers “with happiness” the gold and bronze medals in the Mediterranean Games of 2009.
Elisabet Arribas: “All of us who brought the GEiEG to the elite had an extreme passion”
“In the end, you try to convince yourself that you gave it your all every day. Tennis helps you accept all kinds of situations that may come your way, you get used to them and learn from defeats. I think players are aware of our limitations, we have some cards and we have to play with the best ones. Accepting this helps you overcome any situation in life», he concludes. Eva did not have references from Girona, she focused on theArantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez o Amanda Coetzerbut she has become one, just as Paula Badosa is now, He saw Bolsova i Marina Bassols.
2024-01-22 05:30:27
#situations #live #intensely #tennis
