05/24/2020 - 11:20
- Clarín.com
- sports
Guillermo Pérez Roldán was one of the great hopes of Argentine tennis in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Tandilense, who reached 13th in the world ranking and represented the country in the remembered Davis Cup series against the United States in 1988 - the year in which he reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals - when he lost in close matches against John McEnroe and André Agassi, was a star that faded too quickly amid successive injuries that detracted from continuity.
Rocky , who was playing a power game on the courts that sought to wear down rivals, is now 50 years old and dedicated to tennis teachers in Chile, his country of residence. Despite having played, at the highest level, he has nothing left over economically. As he commented in an interview with "La Nación", the profits he made in those years are no longer there, as a result of a scam he suffered from his father and former coach, Raúl Pérez Roldán. Not only that: he also denounced that during his time as a tennis player, he was repeatedly subjected to physical mistreatment, which included "tapping on a bed" or "a blow to the face" for losing a game.
Raúl Pérez Roldán is remembered not only for being Guillermo's father, but a pillar of the Tandilense tennis school, which among other fruits recently gave stars like Juan Martín Del Potro. In the mid-80s, he formed a team that brought together his two sons (Guillermo and Mariana), Franco Davin and Patricia Tarabini, formed from the youth categories to compete at the highest level. In sports, the results were good. But Guillermo revealed that behind that plot there were very dark spaces.
In the interview with the journalist Sebastián Torok, Pérez Roldán opened his heart and recalled: "If I told you about strong things, such as losing a game, entering a room and having a pineapple hit in the middle of your mouth with a closed fist. I ran them all, huh. Or get your head in a bathroom or get shot by a man on top of a bed. Or a robbery of four or five million dollars. Everything I earned playing tennis, the next day I didn't I had it. My old woman (Liliana Sagarzazu) and my old man signed to get the money out of my accounts. "
Pérez Roldán assured that the physical abuse he suffered was known outside the family. "I suffered physical abuse. Everyone knew. The thing was with me. And with my sister at the beginning. But when I started to check-in myself, my sister took a back seat. I have to say it was a whore technician who gave birth to him. well, but a shitty father. It couldn't be that winning a game was a relief and at certain times, instead of being able to enjoy at 19, I didn't say more. I said to him: 'I kept going, when I needed you technically I call you. Buy a field, go to the horses, what do I know, but leave me alone, "he said. And he added: "One year I won three ATP tournaments, in '87. I was a junior, I was 17 years old! After winning Buenos Aires I go to Itaparica, in the first round I got a boy named Tore Mainecke, I played in Another surface, it came from one that was super slow, it was hot, I lost and (after the game) he climbed onto the bed and started to poop me because he said that I had not moved well ".
Pérez Roldán said that the blows stopped later, but another type of abuse began. "I grabbed him after winning the Palermo tournament, I don't remember if it was in '89. I sat down on the plane and said to him: 'Look, starting next year I want to travel alone, I don't want to travel with you anymore. O I throw them all out, I lose the ranking or I no longer grab the racket. So see what you want to do. "He couldn't stop it. No, no. And there he started to enjoy, until I married the first time at 24 years: he tied up all the silver and took it from me, without warning me. They were family accounts with three signatures. ATP checks came to my name. By signing two, father and mother, they could take out the silver ... You trust your old man. I never knew where the silver was again. " Guillermo assured that when he perceived the situation it was too late: "I finished my career and after three months I was poor. I didn't even have a car. I discovered the scam in 1994. That's how it was: I called the bank outside, I asked for a silver to leave Holidays and there were no more. And there were several million dollars. Also, we had houses, race horses, a restaurant, an apartment, etc. I don't count or live with that and I know that I will never have it. "
According to Guillermo, there was an attempt at reconciliation on his part that also ended in frustration. "I got married a second time, in Chile, my wife convinced me to invite them (their parents). My dad asks me for forgiveness in front of everyone, he tells me that now we are going to fix things, what do I know and he screwed me up again He wanted me to sign some things. I went to Tandil and I said to him: 'Well, give me back something you took from me.' Always trying to be generous in the sense of saying: 'Look, I lived well, if you have to rent some departments I see when I grow up, "but not even that. Nothing. So I proposed to him:" Give me a little and keep everything. "No, neither. So, I said to him:" Look, Dad, let's each go their own way and that's it. 'I'm counting on my work. Fuck your own old men ... "
Pérez Roldán has three children -one of them is a newborn- and currently lives in Chile. He said that until now he had never discussed the subject with his two older daughters, and that he wanted to reveal his experience to prevent other boys from suffering the same situation. "Of course my closest friends know it, my wife knows it, Franco (Davin) and Eduardo (Infantino) know it, Mariano (Zabaleta), who came to live in my house, knows it. It is difficult to tell a thing like that and journalism. But since my third son came and I don't care about anything more than my family, my friends and my work ... I said profound things and I like to make them public so that other boys don't go through something like that again , so that they have the courage that I did not have.