Since March 3, the
Indian Wells Masters 1,000
has been played in California .
The tournament left many surprises such as the elimination of number 1,
Novak Djokovic
, at the hands of the Italian
Luca Nardi
.
But one of the curiosities arose this Thursday when the local
Tommy Paul
, before qualifying for the semi-finals of the contest, gave
brutal praise in an 'argento' tone to Jannik Sinner
, who is at a spectacular level and wants to take
the number from
Carlos Alcaraz.
2 in the ATP ranking.
The Italian awaits his rival precisely in the duel between the German
Alexander Zverev
and the Spanish
Alcaraz
, which if it happens will also have the second place in the world ranking at stake.
This Thursday the American
Paul
was a trend , but not because of what he did on the court in the victory over Casper Ruud, but because of what he declared at a press conference.
The man from
New Jersey was asked about
Sinner
's present
and the answer surprised everyone.
"My physical trainer taught me a term they use in Argentina. When someone plays incredible, they say 'he is playing naked' and he is absolutely naked at this moment
," joked the tennis player who faces the Norwegian in the quarterfinals,
Casper Ruud
.
'He's playing naked' đ±
What did @TommyPaul1 just say about @janniksin?
đ#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/IwYxohakBi
â Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 14, 2024
Paul's physical trainer is
Franco Herrero.
They met the man born in BahĂa Blanca ten years ago when he worked for the
Evert Tennis Academy
, a training center for the development of university and professional tennis players in
Boca Raton
, Florida.
Herrero came to join the American thanks to the previous physical trainer
Gabriel EchevarrĂa
, who was also Argentine.
When the possibility of going to work in
Australia
arose,
he recommended to the young tennis player that he continue with the man from Bahia.
The United States Tennis Association
encouraged Paul and other tennis players to train at the Academy where Herrero was.
However, it took five years for the tennis player and the PF to work together.
âI remember doing
two hours of physical training and two hours of tennis
in one day.
The training sessions were very hard, and at night he would get together with four or five friends and kill himself playing basketball,â commented the man from Bahia to ATPTour.com.
The Argentine also explains that
Paul
not only played tennis when he was a child but that "in his formative ages,
he played all sports
, and that gave him a motor background that allows him to do everything quite well physically."
Tommy Paul seeks to reach the semifinals of Indian Wells.
Photo: EFE.
Tommy Paul is ranked
17th in the ATP rankings
.
In his record he has two
ATP 250
titles , one in 2021 in
Stockholm
and another in
Dallas
, to reach the quarterfinals of the Californian tournament he had to face the Italian
Luca Nardi
, he had just eliminated Djokovic, and won
6-4
,
6-3
.