It all started with a table tennis paddle and balloon, when he was three years old and playing at home. Then, he continued with the infant school, training and tournaments. Today, with 19, Guillermina Grant prepares once again to feel the special vibration generated by defending Uruguay, when he plays in the Billie Jean King Cup that will be played this week in Panama.
The young tennis player is part of the celestial women’s team that from next Wednesday 23 until Saturday 26 will take to the field to seek promotion to Group I of America in this tournament that replaces the Fed Cup.
Guillermina Grant at Roland Garros Juniors last year
“It is always important and beautiful to play for Uruguay,” Guillermina told Referee hours before the trip to Panama, while putting together the bag in a day to the runs with training and with the ceremony of delivery of the national flag.
“I think it’s the most beautiful thing about sport, being able to represent your country. It is always a source of pride and we try to leave everything on the field, whenever we play with Uruguay, I say it, it is like I have extra power, I have a little more strength, and that is unique ”, he added.
The tennis player is part of the Uruguayan team together with Juliana Rodríguez and Isabella Tiscornia, with coach Daniel Senaldi as captain.
The tournament is for teams, which for Guillermina is something that “adds up a lot”. “It is the only week a year in which professional tennis is played in teams. This is a super individual sport and being team now is good, since you don’t play just for yourself, you play for your team and in this case also for the country, ”he said. “It is one of my favorite weeks of the year, it is an honor to represent my country,” said the young woman who is an admirer of Victoria Azarenka and Roger Federer.
–
The Uruguayan team
To prepare for participation in Panama, the team trained collectively in recent days. Before, Guillermina did it individually with her work group.
“I am having two training sessions, in the morning between an hour and a half and two hours, and in the afternoon the same, between an hour and a half and two hours, plus an hour and a half of physical. That is every day from Monday to Friday. This week we also train on weekends ”, he commented, about his demanding routine.
His training place is Carrasco Lawn Tennis, his second home, as he pointed out. There he has as main trainer Bebe Enrique Pérez Cassarino, several years captain of the Uruguayan Davis Cup team, plus Daniel Senaldi, Diego Gatti, physical trainer Santiago Roche and “other teachers of the club,” he said.
Tennis family
In a family where tennis is breathed, Guillermina followed the tradition of the house. “I started playing tennis at the age of three because my mother is a tennis teacher. And in my house I used to play as a little girl with a ping pong paddle and a balloon, and as I grew older I started in minitenis at Carrasco Lawn Tennis ”, she said. “Then I went to school and at 8 I entered training and I have been there for 11 years,” he says about his club, which he thanks for the “great help” they have given him to get where he got.
–
Guillermina Grant
His mother is Tati Ruiz, a tennis and paddle champion, who is also a tennis instructor at Carrasco Lawn, where she teaches 4-year-old children, even adults, men and women, up to 90.
“Having a tennis mom is something incredible,” said Guillermina. “Being able to share with her, get home, talk about tennis, tell her how I’m playing, help me solve problems, being able to travel a few weeks with her as a coach, it’s something that I really like, it motivates me and I enjoy it.”
Besides tennis, did various sports such as hockey, handball, and track and field, competing in all of them, until he had to leave some aside because the weekends “were a mess”, due to the runs to get to games, tournaments and the athletics track.
With 15 years on the courts, she defines herself as a tennis player “who likes to change rhythms, play fast or slow, change, be able to use all the blows, go up to volley.” “I adapt a lot to different types of games and I like to vary my shots a lot,” he said.
Like all athletes, Covid-19 disrupted their plans last year. “I was going to play the four Grand Slams in Juniors and I had the possibility to play only two, which were Australia and Roland Garros. After Wimbledon and the US Open were canceled and it was a shame, in turn there were a lot of tournaments that I was going to be able to play, which were going to give me a lot of experience, and due to the coronavirus they were suspended “.
In this new season he has not yet traveled to any event and Panama is his first destination and first tournament of the year. “It is not so easy to travel in these times with swabs, quarantines, restrictions in some countries … In turn, there are not so many connections or so many flights from Uruguay and it is not so easy to get everywhere. That for the athlete played a bit against because it made it more difficult for there to be tournaments and the way to get there ”.
Heading to the United States
Besides playing tennis, Guillermina studies and in 2021 her life will have a strong change. “In July I am going to the United States to study at a University, at the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA), my idea is to spend four years in which I will be studying and I will also play tennis,” he commented.
The tennis player will study at the business school of said university and will play for her team, the Georgia Bulldogs.
When it comes to talking about his future, he is clear about the steps to follow. “I would like to be a professional tennis player one day, but first I want to study and I want to receive myself. Once those four years are over, I will be more clear about what I want and then try, if I can, if I have everything I need to achieve it. There is always that option ”.
–
The delivery of the Uruguayan flag
“To reach the international circuit and be among the best would be a dream for me. Uruguay has not had a player in the top 100 singles for a long time, something that I would like a lot, and also in doubles, because it is something that I love, “he added about his goals.
Another dream is to play the Grand Slams as a professional, which he was able to experience in part as Junior in Australia and Roland Garros. “It was one of the best two weeks of my life. Because of the facilities, the way you live those days, it’s incredible and I think that’s what every tennis player aspires to ”.
Among his references on the professional circuit, he has Victoria Azarenka and Roger Federer. He admires the Belarusian, watches her matches and follows her career. “He is a person who had to fight a lot in his life and who did great things on the court,” he said.
“And Roger, he’s the king! Just everything he does is perfect and looking at him you always have something new to learn and keep improving, ”he said about the Swiss.
Guillermina also has on her career goal list to be able to compete in some of the next Olympic Games or in “big games” where she can represent Uruguay. “I think they are the best tournaments,” said the young woman who feels an “extra power” when she puts on the light blue.
– .
