Luciana Aranguiz placeholder image
09/16/2021 18:13
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 09/16/2021 18:14
Federico Coria doesn't stop smiling. He has plenty of reasons to do so, because he
is living a dream season
. Established in the top 100 of the ranking, which he reached for the first time in 2020, he had the pleasure of playing
the four Grand Slams
this year
and facing Novak Djokovic in his own home, he reached
his first ATP final
in mid-July in Enough and
was an Olympian
in Tokyo, something that he saw impossible until a few months before the Games. And this weekend, in Buenos Aires, you
will be able to cross out the last wish from that "dream sheet"
that you have always carried with you for some time.
At the age of 29, the Rosario was called up
for the first time
to be part of the Argentine Davis Cup team for the series that will be played on Saturday and Sunday at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis against Belarus, for World Group I.
"
It is the dream that I had to fulfill
. If I think about everything I experienced this year, I put this call
in the first place
. I am in the best moment of my career. The ranking says so and I also feel in very good shape and I'm very happy with my tennis. This call comes at the ideal time, "says the 61st in the ranking.
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A post shared by Fede coria (@fedecoria)
Coria recognizes that he owes this great moment to two very important people for him: his girlfriend
Florencia Gomes
and his coach
Andrés Schneiter
,
who changed the way he saw and faced life and sport.
"When I met Flor and we started dating,
I started to order my life.
She is a girl with a very winning and positive mentality, who put the points on me, in the sense of making me see that I had to mature, see what I was doing and pay attention objectives ", counted the Rosario.
"Along with that, my relationship with
Gringo
(Schneiter) started. I began to know him when he worked with
Cristian Garín
and Topo Londero. I liked the passion with which he
coached
his players, how he lived the game, how he was happy if they won or angry if they lost. I got closer to him, also taking advantage of the fact that he is very much a River fan like me, and we began to share talks in tournaments, some training sessions when he was not busy with his players, he helped me in some preseason. In between, I worked for a time with
Fran Yunis
, who was also very important and I began to make a leap in quality. Last year, he lost his job and I said 'this is my moment,' "he says.
-What did it bring you?
-What caught my attention at the beginning is that he has a very great intensity, an ambition to win and to be a protagonist.
In addition, he
knows very well how to handle my fears
.
In him I found what I wanted and what I needed.
We talk a lot about the tennis part, but also the mental part.
González, Zeballos, Pella, Gaudio (captain), Schwartzman and Coria, the Argentine team to face Belarus.
Photo Sergio Llamera / AAT Press
-Is the key to your great present in a change more mental than sports?
-In my case I
always dealt with shame, with feeling that I was bad,
that people expected more from me because of my last name.
When I was little I handled it very badly and I
generated patterns that after growing up are difficult to change
.
For example, that of looking down and shuffling.
El
Gringo
helps me a lot to get electric, to lift my chest and look, not to be ashamed.
That was what I was changing the most in this journey of my career.
Accept my defects, fight with what is mine and detach myself from how great
Guille
was
.
And that change happened in large part thanks to my coach, my psychologist and my girlfriend, who are people with very positive thoughts.
-You too will have done something to get where you are ...
-They motivated me and helped me to mature and accept that
if I didn't make a big change, tennis was going to leave me
, more than I leave tennis.
Afterwards, I did my thing.
Training myself day by day, getting fully into this and betting on myself, which is not easy because it generates a lot of responsibility.
Every dollar that I earned was invested in adding a nutritionist or a psychologist to find the best place to prepare myself physically.
It was a maturing process that I was assuming with responsibility and it allowed me to fulfill all my dreams.
-What would you say to that Fede who was once close to hanging the racket?
-I would tell you to train more thoroughly.
I never missed a training session, but there
is a big difference between training to comply and doing it conscientiously
, to improve and to grow.
That if he had a bad day, that he should go home worried, because if things go wrong and you don't care, you are not on the right track.
To excel in any profession, you have to live for that profession.
That is what I changed.
Thus, sooner or later you will reach your best version.
And if you don't, at least you know you tried everything.
🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷 missing less 😍 pic.twitter.com/qj1jxjn52u
- fede coria (@fedeecoria) September 10, 2021
-With all the dreams fulfilled, what would you like to write on that wish sheet now?
-I would love to be the
top 50 in
the world, it would be very great, and win an ATP, if it is in Argentina, better.
I already played a final and I think that would be the next step.
We have already achieved the objectives that we set with El
Gringo
in terms of ranking for this year.
But I have a coach who
farts me
if I have a thought of relaxation or of being done.
So we will continue working to continue growing.
"I can't ask for more from life"
Coria, 61st in the world, still does not know if he will play a game this weekend at BALTC.
Captain Gastón Gaudio will have to choose between him and Guido Pella (82nd, but with much more experience in this competition) to dispute the second singles.
But the Rosario is still enjoying every second of his time with the team, which is completed by Diego Schwartzman, Horacio Zeballos and
Máximo González
.
"I feel very energetic,
sometimes they have to calm me down
a little because I'm very high. But I live it that way because of my history and because at 29 years old they are giving me a lot of things. When I found out that I was called up, it
was the best news of my career and my life,
"he says.
IMMENSE HAPPINESS !!!
LET'S
GO
🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦 🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷 https://t.co/KRXrvf6SZt
- fede coria (@fedeecoria) September 7, 2021
"I visualize the weekend and
I imagine myself with a big smile.
If I have to play, the better, because I feel prepared. If not, I will encourage Guido, who is a great person, and the other boys. The most important thing is that he wins. Argentina. We are preparing very well, there is very good weather and that is the important thing, "he continues.
On the duel itself, he says: "For the show it is a shame that the best players from Belarus have not come.
We do not know much about the rivals
, so we will focus on ourselves, we will try to make them feel the brick dust and we will play. with a lot of responsibility. I hope we have a great result. "
The series will be played with the public - a capacity of 70 percent has been enabled and tickets are on sale at
www.ticketek.com.ar
-, something that will give the series a very special flavor and color.
And Coria celebrates it: "It is the folklore of Davis. To have the chance to go out to the stadium and know that my family, my friends and my hero,
Guille
(his brother) are in the stands ... I can't ask for more from the tennis or life ".
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