THE DAY I TRAINED WITH GUILLERMO VILAS

Early January, Vilas Club in Buenos Aires, and under a suffocating weather with temperatures of 38 Celsius and a humidity factor of 80%, I would watch Guillermo Vilas train hour after hour. I'm talking January 2013, not Jan 1978... Guillermo at 60 is still going strong. Believe me.

Anyways, at this early stage of the year, my own training schedule was cardio in the morning, gym right after, some rest and lunch time and couple of hours on court with drills to finish with some points. I was on my own world that afternoon. Have to say, hitting quite well for my standards. I'd just finished a forehand drill with Federico Melo and while picking up the balls I noticed this guy that projects a huge shadow on the court. "I've been looking for you" says the voice and when I look up, the sun hurt my eyes so I'm just able to see a human shape wearing a big towel and a hat... Couldn't believe it...it was Guillermo Vilas himself. First reaction was to look over my shoulder as I was positive he was talking to someone else. But there was none behind me. Was he actually talking to me?

"Yeah, I've been looking for you since yesterday... Nice shots, let's hit together later on, see ya in a few minutes" My day... my year, was already done (on Jan 3rd!!). GV was praising my game? Could that be possible? I tried to focus back on my training session, as Federico was already in position to make me work hard... again. We consumed another basket of balls when Vilas showed up with his bag and rackets. My legs melt down like butter and my knees started trembling with strange spasms... last time I was (almost) this nervous was on my wedding day.

"Watch out, he's going to aim for the lines... he likes putting pressure from the start" Those were the only words of advice from Federico. Guillermo asked for how long we had been training. Almost 2 hours under a scorching, almighty Sun. We did two-to-one drills against GV for about half an hour. Man... the speed and spin were un-be-lie-va-ble... and the accuracy... probably 7 out of 10 balls were in the 2 inch area around the lines. After that time, Fede departed to his next appointment and I stayed on a mano-a-mano with Guillermo. The "Gaucho de Hierro" vs. "Iron Gaucho"... cannot described it with words. Simply magic. After another 20 minutes GV said, "it's enough for today, you've been training a lot today, don't want you to burn out"

Vilas was playing the next day Jose Luis "Batata" Clerc in an exhibition match prior to Roddick - Del Potro... On hard... As a child I used to compare my game to Clerc and Lendl, tall guys with a very classic one-hand backhand, less top spin than most of the guys down under but with more power and trying to be as aggressive as possible from the baseline. Was he using me as a sparring? I didn't dare to ask...

 

 

We spent another hour exchanging concepts and he gave me invaluable tips and insights on my game that were absolutely fantastic. Praised my game again and congratulated the good work that my coach and friend Marcelo Costa did all those years back defining my style of play. He even thought I'd learned tennis in California... kind of an Elliot Telscher type of player. I was in cloud 9... I guess so did Marcelo when I told him all about it.

With all that excitement, I could barely sleep that night. The following day I couldn't move. Had no energy to hit the ball at my usual speed, I was completely drained from the experience itself. But the next day I was again back to normal and GV was training his daughter on the next court to us and stayed after to help me with my serve. I'd been struggling with my serve for the last two years, after an injury I suffered at the back end of 2010. Had to modify the toss of the ball and part of the motion and totally lost confidence in the shot. After a few seconds GV asked me to make some minor changes and voila! Speed started to pick up and by the end of the session I felt I had my weapon back... without the pain. Thanks Guillermo!

 

And the Gaucho de Hierro went on for another training session with Alejandro Fusilier "Fuchi", to keep working on a short-angled forehand..."Have all summer to figure it out, but it's going to be fantastic"... GV at 60, working on new shots... Still going strong... Under a scorching, ... almighty Sun. 

 

Yours,

Iron Gaucho