It was January 1998 when Serena Williams was in Australia experiencing her first Grand Slam experience. She was 16 years old, had already established herself in the top 100 of the WTA ranking and was considered one of the great promises. Brazen and bravado, as always, She looked so physically superior to the rest of the girls her age that she was convinced she could compete against the players on the men’s circuit..
One day that January, walking through the Melbourne Park facilities, He saw a thin and fine tennis player training. He was the Spanish Francisco Pato Clavet who at that time was number 32 in the world ranking and had five ATP titles on his record. Something must have caught Serena Williams’ attention, because, with the support of her sister Venus, He went to the ATP offices to say that they should organize a match against him.
The workers of the Association of Professional Tennis Players couldn’t believe it. Duck Clavet, neither. “They went to the ATP saying that they wanted to play with an ATP player from the top one hundred. and that they considered that they could win, that they could compete. Then it came to me through I don’t know who from the ATP. It was Serena who said: ‘With Pato Clavet’. She must have thought he was lazy…“, recalls Clavet now in Relevo, now retired and dedicated to teaching at the Chamartín Tennis Club.
Pato Clavet was still competing in the singles draw. “It won’t be possible, next time, I’m training”, was more or less the polite response of the tennis player from Aranjuez. “I took it as an anecdotal thing, that is, I didn’t know if they had really meant it, if they had said it as a joke… But hey, you know the rest of the story, right? What happened?“, asks Clavet.
What happened was that, given the Spaniard’s refusal, heThe ATP contacted a somewhat more modest tennis player to play against Serena. The chosen one was the German Karsten Braasch, then number 203 in the world ranking and quite fond of beer and cigarettes., according to some articles from the time. The German had lost in the first round both in singles – against the Spanish Alberto Berasategui – and in doubles and had the flight for five days later. He had a lot of free time.
The court chosen for the match was 17 of the Melbourne Park complex. There were a few fans in the standsbut it was played without a chair umpire, ball boy or television cameras. The match did not last long and Braasch won 6-1 to the surprise of Serena Williams. “I hit shots that had been winners on the women’s circuit and he came easily. Next time I’m going to beat him, I have to gain a little weight,” said the American tennis player.
One of the people who was in the stands watching the game was Venus Williams, Serena’s older sister. And she wanted to try too. It lasted a little longer: Braasch beat Venus 6-2 and then took a photo with the two women who years later would revolutionize the women’s circuit.
Clavet: “Serena should have had a very good victory”
“They are very good tennis players and they hit the ball pretty well, but If you have been playing on the men’s circuit there are certain shots you can make that put them in a lot of difficulty.“Braasch himself wrote later in a column in The Guardian. “I hit her with an effect that they are not experienced with. And then another key was that I arrived at each shot. They hit the corners that would be winners on the women’s circuit, but I managed to return them. I won, but I think neither I nor Venus nor Serena took the match too seriously. “We were just having a little fun.” The German claimed that in the previous hours he had played golf and drank a couple of beers.
“I believe that from then on they were silent and did not say anything about entering the ATP again.“says Pato Clavet, who prefers not to reveal what he talked about years later with Serena when they crossed paths again. “I prefer to ignore it. I think that – when he challenged him – he must have had a very good victory and he had a lot of morale,” adds the Spaniard, who in that Australian Open lost in the third round to the Moroccan Hicham Arazi in five sets.
“I respect Serena a lot. She has been a spectacular tennis player, she has been the best in tennis. The truth is that he had power and strength comparable to many men. For example, he served harder than me. But, of course, in the end many things really count…“
2024-02-22 12:18:59
#silent #Relief
