MADRID, 30 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Martín de la Puente is ready to make his historic debut at Roland Garros, “a dream” that he never thought “would come true”, and he is clear that although he is not “favorite at all”, he will go “with the knife between the teeth to give the maximum possible war”.
The Galician and the Madrilenian Daniel Caverzaschi will make history this week in national wheelchair tennis by being the first to be able to play an individual table of a ‘Grand Slam’, something that only the top twelve in the world ranking have access to, and In addition, they will also do it in the doubles box as a couple.
“Let’s be honest, I’m going ten out of twelve, I’m not a favorite at all, but it’s also the beauty of sport. I’m going to go with the knife between my teeth, I’m going to give the surprise, to overthrow favorites, I’m going with everything ready to give the maximum war possible”, declared De la Puente to Europa Press after being presented as a member of the Toyota Team for the next Paralympic cycle.
The man from Vigo had “the illusion of a child” of being able to play at Roland Garros, but he never thought “that it would come true”. “The nerves are increasing more and more, but it is a dream to be able to play at Roland Garros. Since you were a child you have dreamed of the Grand Slams and that it has come true means that we have done things well and I am very happy and very impatient to be able to debut,” he said.
De la Puente, who was “very happy to be able to give his best” on the clay in Paris, where he will debut against the French Guilhem Lagat, 14 in the world, affirmed that this has been his “impossible”, although no gate.
“It’s great to be able to enjoy this experience, I hope there are many more like this and that Spanish wheelchair tennis improves and more of us play it. I think I still have many more to look for and to give, and hopefully it will be the first time of many that we are in a ‘Grand Slam'”, he assured.
“BEING NUMBER ONE DOESN’T LET ME SLEEP AT NIGHT”
“In the short term my mind is set on Paris, I hope to go as far as possible in both singles and doubles, and in the long term being number one doesn’t let me sleep at night, hopefully one day I’ll see everything from the top, but much more work needs to be done for that and I think we are on the right track”, explained Martín de la Puente about his next goals.
At 22 years old, he already has two Olympic diplomas, has won five ITF international tournaments and has been four times absolute champion of Spain. “I don’t pay much attention to age, I want to win as much as possible but sometimes the sport is complicated, many victories, many defeats, you have to know how to carry both things and nothing. We come in very good shape and we have to continue like this, there are to continue with everything and hopefully at Roland Garros we give the bombing and if it can be in the following tournaments of the tour too, even better”, said the Vigo player.
Martín de la Puente defines himself as someone “very competitive” who loves to “win” and that is why he is not completely satisfied with the world runner-up position obtained in 2022 with the Spanish team, along with Caverzaschi, Kike Siscar and Quico Tur, after losing against the Netherlands.
“Losing a final is never easy, you always have that thorn of taking the cup or the gold, but being objective it has been a great week for everyone. It encourages me much more to continue doing what we do, to continue working harder to try to reach to be able to aspire to perfection one day, although it is very difficult and I hope that we continue with this embryo that we have and with this strength”, he affirmed.
De la Puente, who has been world champion in the junior category three times and one of the great promises of wheelchair tennis, also spoke about how it is to adapt to the jump to professionalism and the weight of expectations.
“It’s always difficult to change category, to be used to winning and then losing, so I think it’s a bit of reality, you can’t always win, you can’t always win, there are days when people are better than you and I think it’s positive for athletes to know how to know their limits little by little and that the bar is higher every time to get to one day give the best of us”, he sentenced.