Re: 這期ace的封面是蚊子喔!!!
Juan Carlos Interview in Ace Magazine
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"Inconspicuous" would be the kindest way to describe the small bungalow that
Juan Carlos Ferrero lives in at his tennis academy in central Spain. So modest
that if the local estate agent were to stick a photo of it up in his shop
window it would barely catch the eye of a passer by.
It’s a nondescript, two bedroom, peach coloured building over looking a flat,
featureless farmland.
When he’s not on tour this is where the world number 3 spends most of his time
. And he doesn’t even live there alone- he shares accommodation with Israel’s
Matos Gil, ranked 598 on the ATP computer.
To be fair Ferrero also owns a rather large home in Valencia which far more
befits his status as a millionaire several times over. But when he’s training
at the academy – The JC Ferrero Equelite Acedemia de Tenis- The French Open
champion likes to keep things unpretentious.
He’s the only world top 10 player based at the academy. In fact he’s the only
world top 100 player based there, while others of his stature train among the
worlds elite in Florida, California, Monaco or Barcelona, Ferrero is quite
happy to remain on the outskirts of Villena, a small unassuming town 30 miles
from Costa Blanca in the hills of the Valencia region.
“The big academies in Barcelona have called me many times and asked me to
train there” Ferrero says, when asked why he hasn’t, like all his
compatriots been enticed to Spain’s Tennis capital.
“But I have always felt very good here. I always felt I have a good coach and
good conditions to practice. I was never tempted. I had good results training
here and now I am better than the guys practicing in Barcelona. So why should
I change ?”
His coach Antonio Martinez, agrees. “Yes, Barcelona is the centre of Tennis”
he says, talking though an impromptu interpreter. “But don’t forget that this
region has produced two world number one players Juan Carlos and of course
Marat Safin who, who grew up here. It’s an area that becoming more important
worldwide. Players like David Ferrer and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo come from this
area. Juan Carlos is absolutely not missing anything by not being in Barcelona”
One could argue that in Villena, Ferrero is lacking players of his level to
hit with. “Juan Carlos became number one in the world without having top 10 or
even top 100 players to practice with”, his coach contends.” It’s not in my
interests to have lots of top players here. Juan Carlos has demonstrated that
it’s possible to be world number one without this”.
Ferrero himself claims that he doesn’t need peers like Moya, Robredo, Mantilla
, Corretja or Costa training with him every day. “I am very close to them any
way.” He says. I travel with them all the year and I practice with them when
we are on the Tour there aren’t too many players in the world with my level
to practice with anyway.”
The other reason Ferrero prefers to stay in the perhaps less inspiring
surroundings of Vilenna is that he can remain close to his family home. He was
born 20 miles north of the academy site in 1980 in a small town called
Onteniente. His father, Eduardo, who now travels to the major tournaments with
his son, used to own a small bed linen factory. It was against the walls of
this factory that young Juan Carlos first hit a tennis ball.
When he was 9 years old Ferrero met up with his local coach Antonio Martinez,
the same man who looks after him today. “When we first met, Toni was strict
and very serious” remembers Juan Carlos. “I respected him a lot and we’ve
been close friends ever since”. At first the duo, one of the longest running
partnerships in current tennis, trained at a small hard-court club also near
Vilenna. Then when Ferrero was 14 they started playing at Equelite, a club
whose name means “elite team”. “This place was a smaller club back then"
recalls Toni. “It just had two clay courts and a small house” Juan Carlos
used to come here to play on clay and then had to go to the old club for the
gym.”As Ferrero’s success grew, so did the academy. At first he lived in a
12 square metre room in the main building, next to all the kids. Nowadays thanks
to Ferrero’s patronage and financial guarantee, the main house has expanded,
there are 13 courts (hard, clay, indoor and artificial grass), a huge gym, a
pool a bungalow and a golf course. Ferrero is also investing in a luxury hotel
nearby.
We’ve flown out to Spain to meet with the world number 3 while he test the
latest models from his racket sponsor, Prince. Steve Davis, the company’s
American research and development advisor, looks ready to pull his hair out.
He’s only recently arrived from the airport after a long transatlantic flight
and right now he’s trying to convince Ferrero of the merits of the new Tour
NX Graphite. He’s not having much luck. “If you don’t believe in it, you
wont get it” he says, the exasperation just detectable in his otherwise
reassuring tone.Ferrero looks anything but reassured. He’s halfway through
the second day of his annual racket testing and he’s having trouble getting
to grips, quite literally, with the new bat.
During the next break in play we resume the interview for ACE. The discussion
turns to Ferrero’s Sampras-like coolness on court. “I’m not very emotional
and I’m happy with this” Juan Carlos says. “I try to keep positive and
concentrate all the time. Being cool on the court helps me concentrate. If I
become very emotional then maybe I will do things differently than before. I
have to stay with the same style because it works”
His coach concurs with this ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach.
But he would like to see his protegee display a bit more emotion. “For me it
would be better for Juan Carlos to demonstrate more his feelings- his positive
feelings, not his negative ones” Toni says. “He can easily improve two or
three percent if he’s more positive on court. We’re trying, we’re working
on it”.Two or three percent may not sound like a great deal, but when you’re
at Ferrero’s level it can make all the difference. Last year the player won
four titles in seven finals, including, most importantly, the French open.
After losing to Andy Roddick in the US Open final he became the second ever
Spaniard to reach the ATP world number one spot. (Carlos Moya was the first.)
He was also a mainstay of the Spanish team which faced Australia in the Davis
cup final in December last year. All told, during his career, he has won a
total of 11 titles: eight on clay, two on outdoor hard and one on indoor hard.
Even on Wimbledon’s grass (last year) he has reached the fourth round.
This variety of surfaces is what makes him stand out from the crowd of Spanish
players on the tour. Toni is keen to stress that unlike most of his compatriots
, his player is not a clay court specialist. “The major difference is that he
plays very well on almost all surfaces” he says, becoming animated. Other
players like Costa and Corretja have major problems adapting their games to
hard courts because they grew up playing on clay. Juan Carlos played a lot on
hard courts when he was younger. Now he plays better on hard-courts and better
on clay courts. He’s more of an all round performer”.
“In fact we have a situation which is very strange for a Spanish player. Juan
Carlos finds it more difficult to go from hard courts to clay courts than the
opposite way round. Most Spanish players are different; they can’t wait to
play on clay courts. So you see Juan Carlos is not an all round clay-court
specialist. He’s a complete player.”
Anyone who has seen Ferrero win a match knows that, immediately after victory,
he kisses his fingers and reaches up towards the sky. “I kiss to my mum”, he
says, “To remember her.” When he was 17, Juan Carlos’ mother Rosario died of
breast cancer. The youngster was so devastated that he considered giving up
tennis for good. “I took it very badly”, he remembers. “It was the worst
moment of my life. I almost left tennis because it was a tremendous blow. But
then I thought of carrying on for her because she liked me to play so much.
Yes, I thought of giving up tennis back then. Then I kept going and never
thought about it again.”
Despite his regular kisses to heaven, Juan Carlos says he’s not particularly
religious. “I don’t believe in God so much, you know” he admits. “When I do
the kiss I don’t know if my mother is watching or not, I do the kiss also for
my father. He likes me to do it.”
Just as he opens up and talks about his personal life, Juan Carlos has second
thoughts and clams up again. You can see how uncomfortable he is talking about h
is family and religion. Some squirming is detectable in his body language. He’
s also finding it hard to concentrate on the questions being put to him. He’s
far more interested in our photographer’s digital camera “I want to buy a
camera for my girlfriend” he tells James, pulling a Spanish version of ‘what
digital camera’ from his racket bag. “What do you think?” (His girlfriend is
called Patricia. She lives in Valencia where she is a college student.) After
a brief discussion about Patricia’s photographic requirements, James has no
hesitation in recommending a ￡1000 Canon EOS 300D. Juan Carlos doesn’t bat
an eyelid. He may live modestly but when you earn ￡2 million a year (in prize
money alone), a cool grand for your girlfriend is hardly going to get your bank
manage sweating.
The next interruption is canine one. Juan Carlos has two dogs- a tiny little
Ihasa apso called Roca and a quite enormous St Bernard called Laska. (Side by
side their dissimilarity is hilarious.) Both of these man’s best friends are
jealous of all the attention their master is getting. While Roca runs around
yapping at all the players’ clay covered ankles, Laska is lolloping about,
sniffing every ball in site. To the embarrassment of all present, most of the
balls he’s sniffing are not of the tennis variety. Fortunately Laska’s
genital inquisitiveness earns him a slap from Toni.
Juan Carlos laughs and excuses him from the interview. It’s time for his daily
work out in the gym. He wanders off to his peach coloured bungalow to change.
Laska follows him, still sniffing.
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