Horacio Zeballos, the best Argentine doubles player in history: “Mentally exhausted but happy”

On a highly competitive circuit like professional tennis, there is always room for examples of friendship and camaraderie. This is the case of Mar del Plata Horace Zeballos, the best doubles player in Argentine history (he reached number three in the world), who gave way to his happiness for having successfully passed the first round of doubles in Wimbledon along with Spanish Marcel Granollers, to comfort the son of Juan Sebastian Cabal. just finished the match.

It was a very tough game in which the Argentine-Iberian couple narrowly prevailed over the Colombian formed by himself Cabal and Robert Farah by 6-7(6) 7-6(2) 7-6(9) in 2 hours 56 minutes “of the highest level” like himself zeballos defined it in an exclusive dialog with Profile.

But the emotional note was given zeballoswhen the clash had just finished and before retiring, he saw the son of Cabala crying in his father’s lap, he approached and comforted him saying “That they had won the important one (the final of the US Open) and you were present”. The close relationship of zeballos and his family with Cabala it comes from afar, since according to him he told us “They have known each other with my baby (Ema) since they both went to the Australian Open nursery and they were 6 months old.”

“There are many emotions. Such a close match, I still haven’t fallen. They are all tough, but when you get here, you see the draw and you get a couple in the first round that has beaten us in a Grand Slam final (US Open), you say the heck, a little more luck ” Today the level was very high of the four and that made it defined by details.

The evocation of important moments from previous matches against the same couple has to “Onion” an important mental value. So he told us that “Many times it happens, memories of moments of greatness come back to you, whether you played against them in a Grand Slam or Masters 1000 final. Today I was thinking about the US Open final and that made me play better.”

When in the match tie break of the third set Zeballos-Granollers They were close to victory, they closed the gap dangerously, and at that key moment determination was essential. This is how the Marpoatense admitted it: “there you have to have a lot of conviction and push forward; The dialogue has to be too positive because in the doubles they don’t have rhythm, it’s not like the singles, you don’t have the chance to pick up the rhythm, you have to be very energetic, that’s the difference. These types of matches are more than anything mental”.

It is always comforting and hopeful to start any tournament like this, especially if it is one of the big ones, and even more so if it is Wimbledon, the cathedral Now to follow that the road has just begun.

daniel alvarez