“Every day something happens to me. You know that there isn’t a day when something doesn’t happen to me. hey”, dice Marcelo Rios, from Sarasota, to justify in his particular style the novelties that are emerging in his life and that have him very excited. At 46 years old, the former number one in the world is motivated with some plans that begin to take shape and that promise to give a radical turn to his peaceful life if they come to fruition. It’s up to him.
And it is not just any decision, but one that involves his environment and that would put him back in the foreground of tennis. Some days ago He received an offer from the Chinese Juncheng Shang, better known as Jerry Shang, one of the great promises of world tennis and despite being only 17 years old, he already shows signs of having the material to be on top. A casual encounter was enough to light a fuse that the lefty thought was out.
“I went to say hello to Shapovalov and he (Shang) appeared with his father. And then Red, who trained me for a while (David Ayme, Nick Bollettieri’s right-hand man), told me that he played incredible. I watched him for a while and the truth is that he hit the ball very well. ‘This is the Nishikori to come’, he told me. Time passed and this came out.
The conversations took place over the phone with Max Eisenbud, the player’s agent and representative of various international figures such as Maria Sharapova and the British Emma Raducanu. “Sharapova’s ex-manager called me and told me that he has a Chinese player who just turned 17 and is 1.83 meters tall, which is rare for a Chinese. He is left-handed, he plays the same as me, but with much more power. He’s 370, won four pro tournaments and qualified for Indian Wells. I saw him play here and he came up to ask me for a photo,” he says.
Indeed, Jerry he was number one in the junior world last year, being a finalist at the US Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon of the category, and is already taking his first steps in professionalism, surpassing the ATP rankings and even playing the Masters 1,000 in Miami and Indian Wells. In the latter, he had the luxury of winning the qualy to a top 100, the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo. The Chinese promise precisely has as its maximum reference to the Chilean, who reveals it in this way: “The manager told me ‘You know what’s up? That this dude Marcelo Rios is believed. He thinks it’s you.’”
Ríos confesses that the call made him happy because someone was looking for him. “I’m not like Capdeville who goes around Instagram offering to train, and I told the manager that I did not want to be like Ivanisevic or those tennis players who were very good who appear accompanying the players in the grand slams and in the big tournaments and they only travel 10 weeks a year. It’s like a lie, because for me the coach has to be on top of the asshole and know what he’s doing. Like this Chinese has four hueones working with him: trainer, PF, masseur… He has a team that will die“, highlights.
The offer has Ríos analyzing all the variables. He even turned to his former agent Jeff Schwartz to study the proposal. “I told (Shang) to send me a draft with what he wants, offers me and how many weeks. I am seeing it with Jeff and he told me to think about it, because he did not imagine me in this ”, warns.
One of the images that comes to mind is going back to small tournaments. “As he is 300 in the world, he will have to play challengers. So, it’s not that straightforward either,” she says. And he adds: “What happens to me is that I have a family and suddenly I find myself alone with the asshole, instead of enjoying myself, which was the same thing that happened to me when I retired. But my wife tells me that she would accompany me. Also, my kids are going to do home school next year and could study online. So, according to them, they could also travel with me.”
But beyond all the analysis factors that this proposal implies, the Chilean’s motivation is great and it is shown in a current example: “I think this is a hey complicated, but I remembered Alcaraz, who was caught by Ferrero when he was a boy and now has 7 in the world. So, I started looking at the asshole and never has a Chinese been among the top 100. If you achieve that, you already achieve something important.”
“What happens is that forming an asshole and inserting it yourself is something entertaining. It is not to take away Massú’s merits, but he grabbed a dude already good (Dominic Thiem) and, more than that, what are you going to do. Here, on the other hand, starting from the bottom and doing what Ferrero did with Alcaraz is something that motivates me”confess.
The final determination will come later this month when Ríos and Shang meet. “There is nothing closed. I’m going to meet him in the last two weeks of July, because he is here and I told him that I needed those two weeks to meet him. We are going to talk, train together and see what’s up, ”he announces, along with highlighting that another of the things that motivates him is the way in which his eventual pupil faces his career. “Mentally the Chinese are very good when they are assholes”he argues.
This has not been the only offer that Chino received, since a couple of years ago he was about to change Sarasota for Asia. However, the Covid-19 did its thing and the project was frustrated. “They offered me to go to Japan to train for four million a year for four years. My whole family was going to accompany me, we talked, everything was ready and shit with the pandemic. He had everything discussed. All I wanted was a good house, a school for my children, but in the end it didn’t work out”, she declassifies.
If the left-hander from Vitacura agrees, he will make his debut as a coach, since his previous experience was as an assistant to Nicolás Massú in the Davis Cup and he had previously been unsuccessfully sounded out by the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and other figures.
On October 14, Marcelo Ríos will return to the track to play an exhibition with the Spanish Álex Corretja, in the Gran Arena Monticello, from San Francisco de Mostazal. The meeting was scheduled for last Friday, but discomfort in the left-hander’s hip prevented it from taking place.
“The first time I put hyaluronic acid, which served me for a month. Then it started to hurt again and I got stem cells, which didn’t help me at all. I couldn’t do more than that. Now what I have left is to have surgery or keep it there until I can’t take it anymore. I intend to train, put hyaluronic acid back on and infiltrate the day before the exhibition. The grace is that people see something good”reveals the former number one in the world.
The ailment is annoying for certain activities. “I go to the gym and nothing hurts, but when I run, bounce or sprint I feel it a little. Where I shit the most is when I’m lying down, when I’m trying to sleep and I turn on my side… Or when I’m having lunch and I’m sitting for a long time. Also when driving. Now I bought a Lamborghini and, since it is so low, I walk with my leg bent and it is difficult for me to get out, ”he relates.
“The hip shit, the cartilage doesn’t exist and it hits me bone to bone. Then, you have to operate and recovery is a bit of a bastard; It’s like four months, using a little bit of crutches and then doing rehabilitation. I thought that the older you are, the heavier the recovery, but according to the doctor, no. Of course, with what I do, jumping and doing thousands of hey, I can throw the iron. He prefers that she put up with it until he is older and doesn’t do as much heybut it will depend on how you endure the pain. There are good days and bad days, but I have to have surgery, I have to do it. I’m going to try to run it as much as I can,” he says.
Precisely, a dilemma also arises on this issue. “I ask the doctor what he can do the most. When I say enough… Maybe I have a very high pain tolerance or I have the shit and go on and on. So, I asked him if I went on and on, could I get lame, and he said no; that I can do shit with my hip and then he operates on me and I’ll be fine. Hip operations are successful and I have friends who have undergone surgery and have turned out well”, he adds. In any case, this option destroys the idea of wanting to play a professional tournament again and try to be the oldest tennis player to win one. “This is impossible”he resigns.
“I’ve had back pain all my life, but the hip pain has been heavy, because it doesn’t let me do things. walk and suddenly there is a prick like an electric shock and there caught the scream or you fall asleep with your leg up. I have zero elongation. Although I play soccer with Marcelito, I can kick with both legs and it doesn’t hurt, but when I take a shower and I’m colder there I go over the top, ”he laments.
Of course, these days not everything is so complicated, since he has continued to prepare for the exhibition and has been able to handle his feelings: “Now I feel good, strong, powerful… I have lost five kilos of fat. So I feel better.”
In any case, he guarantees his presence in the match against Corretja. “I’m going to try to do my best, I can infiltrate to play without any pain. I also asked the doctor if I could play shit on my hip and he said no. So I’m not going to have a problem being on display. Then I have to make the decision of when to have surgery, thinking about everyday life”.