In the Argentinian line-up to face the Czech Republic, are the familiar faces of Del Potro and Monaco, both from Tandil, a small town in Argentina and conveyor-belt of tennis talent. Does this mean that there's a secret "Made in Tandil"? We found some answers there…
There are some unexplainable phenomena, tiny dots on the face of our planet that are an inexhaustible source of future great champions, for no apparent reason. Take Uruguay, a small country of three million people with a surface-area of a little more than half that of the UK. Twice football world champion, fourth at the last World Cup, the Celeste won the last Copa America, at the expense of the Argentine and Brazilian giants, with their 40 and 190 million inhabitants respectively. Now look at Tandil, a small town (123,000 inhabitants, Editor's note) in Buenos Aires province, which gave birth to four players in the Top 100 in 2009. At the time, Maximo Gonzalez and Diego Junqueira were sharing the bill with Juan Martin Del Potro and "Pico" Monaco, respectively 8th and 11th in the world, all following in the footsteps of Mariano Zabaleta and Guillermo Perez Roldan and of a handful of other ex-Top 100 players also from Tandil. How to explain that a provincial town has two players in the top 20 - more than the United States, as many as Serbia and only one fewer than tennis giants such as France and Spain? Could it be that the Pampas air and wide open spaces give extraordinary tennis gifts?
“No shopping, no Mac Donald’s”
On-site, everybody has his own theory. "I think it all started when Guillermo Vilas came here for an exhibition match in 1977. From then, the club decided to turn to tennis full-on by providing more resources to the school" says Horacio Morrone, president of Independiente of Tandil, which saw all the players mentioned above pass through on their way to the top. "Here, there aren’t many distractions. No shopping, no McDonalds” notes Mario Bravo, the director of the school's tennis club. Raul Perez Roldan, the pioneer of the “almost military” academy, echoes this, with his method relying on an intense physical preparation, discipline and laborious repetition of movements. His kids, Guillermo and Mariana turned professional under his tutelage, as did Franco Davin, the current coach of Juan Martin Del Potro. A method also followed carefully by his disciple Marcelo Gomez, who himself saw on the Independiente courts the future stars; Zabaleta, Monaco, Junqueira, Gonzalez and Del Potro. "Our work goes beyond the simple tennis aspect. We insist on the mental, physical training and character. It's a matter of sacrifices and values. If you come late, you don’t train. Throw your racket and we’ll throw you out of the club" insists Gomez, now nicknamed "El Mago" (the Magician, Editor's note).
Training at 0°C
Juan Monaco himself says the same thing: "Independiente taught us professionalism, humility, sacrifice. We sometimes trained at 0°C. When a ball went out onto the road, we used to run to go get it. When we were kids, we already had the common goal of turning professional." Memories that give goose bumps to the Magician… "When I see one of my former players make a move we worked on together in an ATP tournament, such as when Del Potro makes a parallel backhand, it's the best feeling ever" confesses Marcelo Gomez. Since the victory of his protégé at the 2009 U.S. Open, kids from all over the country and across the continent flocked to Tandil to follow his advice. And to dream that magic happens.
By Florent Torchut, at Tandil
