The champions and coaches who support the non-profit academy I Tennis Campus talk about the relevant aspects of the shaping of a tennis player. Ljubicic: “The most important role is that of the family”.
Supporting talent to give a possibility not only to the predestined but also to the third and fourth best, who often remain in the shadows and for whom it is almost impossible to reach the top-level tennis circuit. This is the ambitious goal set by I Tennis Foundation, a charitable organisation founded by Turin lawyer Simone Bongiovanni, and by its renowned ambassadors. The call for applications to the Summer Master in Sardinia this summer (rendezvous in Turin on July 30th and then all together to the Forte Village Resort from 3 to 25 July). Applications are open to all Italians born in 2008 who sign up within June 10 on the website www.itennisfoundation.com: the best 20 – 10 boys and 10 girls – according to tennis ability and disposition, will have the opportunity to live a high-level training Master and learn as much as they can from some of the best coaches in the circuit today.
Among these Ivan Ljubicic, Gipo Arbino, Corrado Barazzutti and Emilio Sanchez, who also has responsibility of the training at I Tennis Campus.
But how does one shape a tennis player? “I think that a lot starts at home, so from the parents – explains Ivan Ljubicic -. They have the most important role in the life of a player: because they can contribute in a decisive manner to create strong personalities. After it’s up to the coach to add pieces to a puzzle that becomes more and more complex. For example, this desire to improve that has been proved by the FabFour in the last 20 years comes from their family. These fantastic players have shown everyone that you need to always look to do something better and never stop”.
First comes the family then, but after having set foot on a tennis court and having identified a trusted person, it must let the professionals work: “Family is super important – echoes Gipo Arbino – It must go jointly with the coach, speak with him, ask him all it wants, but never interfere on the technical aspect. It must rely on the instructor”.
“Having trust in someone who solves the problems and with whom you grow also establishing a strong human relationship, an aspect that I believe is fundamental, is what I look for in all the people who work with me”, confirms Lorenzo Sonego, busy in these days at the Roland Garros.
Corrado Barazzutti widens the conversation to the values of tennis and, consequently, of I Tennis Foundation: “I am happy to endorse I Tennis Campus because it’s an initiative that will do good for the boys and girls who will be chosen. Tennis is a sport that teaches discipline, to compete with other people, that not only causes physical traits or technical abilities to emerge but that forms your character. All fundamental thing for the growth and education of youngsters. My compliments to I Tennis Foundation, but in addition to private initiatives I would like that sport were taken seriously also by the government and by public education”.
Barazzutti then uses beautiful words for Gipo Arbino, key point in the charitable tennis academy: “Gipo is one of those who was able to realise the dream of all us coaches, namely taking a prospect from a tennis school and leading him to become one of the strongest players in the world. Few coaches have done it. For our profession is the maximum that one can aspire to.”
Ivan Ljubicic returns on the essential trust that must exist between coach and tennis player: “For me the relationship between instructor and player must be 100% pure. The coach always has a different vision compared to the player, but the player must take the court with clear ideas of what he/she needs to do. Both with me and Roger and with another coach with any other player, it’s important to establish an open relation. The gameplan is discussed before, then when the player goes on the court he/she performs what was decided together. But the stream of information cannot be one-sided. Us coaches need the athletes’ feedback to place them in the best possible condition to express themselves to the maximum.
We need to understand what they think, how they reason. Too many players, however, say nothing, then take the court, something doesn’t work and they turn towards their coaches taking it out on them. I hate seeing these scenes. Advice during the match? Never. A tennis player on the court must make a thousand decisions in a game and the coach can only cause confusion. The match from the outside is seen differently than on the court. For this, personally, I am entirely against in-game coaching, because it destroys a bit of what tennis is: a battle between two persons who need to find the way to win a match”.
Other statements by the I Tennis Campus ambassadors
EMILIO SANCHEZ, ACADEMIA SANCHEZ-CASAL FOUNDER, EX-7 ATP AND SPANISH DAVIS CUP CAPTAIN
“When Simone Bongiovanni talked with me for the first time about this project I thought he was a dreamer, because nobody in the history of tennis has brought forward a social aid project with these characteristics and at this level – recounts the great Emilio Sanchez, who in his academy helped mature a certain Andy Murray – For this reason as Academia Sanchez-Casal we couldn’t avoid embracing this project. I have been in tennis for many years, but this initiative is a dream, it inspires me and I can’t wait to take the field with these young players during the Summer Master at Forte Village”.
IVAN LJUBICIC
The ex-3 ATP found shelter from the war in the Balkans just at Turin’s doorstep. Roger Federer’s current coach has, therefore, a very strong bond with the home of the ATP Finals 2021-2025: “When the civil war broke out, from one day to the next the friend who lived next door or your godfather become all of a sudden your enemies. I remember my parents’ fear, especially my mother’s. The six months in the refugee camp were the hardest of my life. Then came the opportunity to come to Italy. I remember the white van with the inscription Le Pleiadi that came to pick us up in Trieste, the trip and the arrival in this spectacular place: we couldn’t believe having ended up in the most important club in Europe”. In fact, in that period the Moncalieri tennis club hosted in practice the Italian Davis Cup team: Camporese, Furlan, Caratti, Pescosolido, Brandi, Mordegan and then coaches and trainers like, among others, Riccardo Piatti, Danilo Pizzorno and Pino Carnovale. That was the start of a scintillating career, carried on also after retirement: “When Roger asked me to train him he surprised me, I didn’t know he was looking for another coach. I was proud that he thought I could give him something more. He hadn’t won a Slam in five years and I firmly believed he could do it again. It probably was the most important moment of my career”.
GIPO ARBINO, COACH OF LORENZO SONEGO
“The organisation is composed of dedicated and kind-hearted professionals, this is why I accepted to support the initiative and dedicate all my time, compatibly with circuit commitments. The project has many analogies with Lorenzo’s story. I decided to back the first non-profit tennis academy with the objective of helping other boys and girls walk on his same path.
SIMONE BONGIOVANNI, I TENNIS FOUNDATION FOUNDER
“The leading values of I Tennis Campus are meritocracy, given that only the most gifted boys and girls will be selected. And solidarity, meant as favouring for once not the first or second choices who already have the support of families, managers and federations, but the third, fourth and fifth best who need a tangible support by someone in order to emerge in this sport”.