Nine and a half hours of sleep and the inspiration of the shot

Pablo Carreño had the Games between his eyebrows. They were always on his calendar. In 2020 and in 2021. While Rafa Nadal (3rd), Roberto Bautista (10th), Albert Ramos (40th), Jaume Munar (69th), Carlos Alcaraz (75th) and Feliciano López (90th) declined to play in Tokyo, he enlisted in singles, doubles and mixed doubles (which did not play due to the heat stroke of Paula Badosa).

After stumbling against Karen Khachanov (25th) and meeting Novak Djokovic in the bronze match, he relaxed instead of sinking. “At first I fell a bit down, but later I slept like never before. When losing, all the fatigue came to me over several weeks, all the pressure to represent your country and Perhaps seeing that I was going to have Djokovic in front of me and that it was very difficult, I relaxed. Nine and a half hours at a stretch! “, said the Asturian amused.

When he arrived at the Ariake Center in the morning and after warming up with his coach Samuel López, he got to see Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez. “It was good for me to face the game with tremendous illusion. I went out to win and I did it, “he said. With no time for celebrations, on the 5th he will fly to Toronto to face the Masters 1,000 and the American hard court season.. The week before the Games, he achieved his first ATP 500 in Hamburg, on gravel. Risky, but it worked out. “Today they are very used to surface changes and we had four days ahead of us. He arrived with enormous confidence and went well,” his coach was delighted.