Do not miss the first installment of the interview that our colleague Daniel Gamarra kept with the great player of StarVie. Do you know how he started playing paddle tennis? What do you remember from those first years? How were your beginnings in Spain? Get to know 'The Warrior' more closely.
Padel World Press .- He is one of the best players in the world of paddle tennis although he may not be the most mediatic or the one with the most headlines. Constant, hard-working and very disciplined, one of his great virtues has been knowing how to get the most out of all the colleagues he has had throughout his career ...
And is that if there is something that characterizes Matías is his dedication, his solidarity, his desire to excel and the commitment he shows with each and every one of the projects he decides to undertake.
Anecdotes, unforgettable moments, sacrifice and the firm intention to succeed in this sport mark the trajectory of a true 'Warrior', who has earned by his own merits the current 6 number of the WPT Ranking.
How were your origins in this sport?
I started playing tennis when I was about 4-5 years old. My brother and I were trained by a lot of people, but, especially, my father did it since he had the High Performance Tennis Center in Buenos Aires. The paddle tennis adventure began at the age of 11-12 with the outbreak of the paddle boom in Argentina. My family decided to go to Puerto Iguazú, a city in Argentina in the province of Misiones. It was there that we started to hit the shovel hard. Later, my father, due to the aforementioned paddle boom in Argentina, decided to set up a High Performance Center called CEPAC (High Competition Paddle Training Center), from which many boys who today are competing in the Professional Circuit came. : Bela, Nicoletti, Godo Díaz, Fede Quiles ... It was a good quarry, as well as a great human group. Some guys came to train in the summer like Lamperti, Mieres or Gaston Malacalza, which was a reference for us.
What do you remember of your years at the Academy with your father? Any anecdote?
At that time we would leave school, eat and after eating we would play paddle tennis all afternoon until 19:00 p.m. or 20:00 p.m. ... Every day, I loved it. I remember with special affection the trips we made to the Junior Tournaments with all the parents. As an anecdote, I still remember that on a trip all the boys from the academy arrived at a hotel, some of them got out of hand and one of them started painting the walls of the hotel with a fire extinguisher, hahaha… What a time !! I also fondly remember the games with my brother. Being two years younger than me, he always played with me in a higher category than me, so he used to be nervous. I remember crying during the games but still I kept winning the points ... I cried but I won the points and, in the end, the rivals cried hahaha.
When you were there did you think you were going to get that far?
Well, I would say that those of my generation have two pasts, so to speak. In 2.000, many of us came to Spain and here we had to start over. Fernando and I had become a couple in Argentina but when we came it was like a start over since the Circuit was totally different. To be able to live we had to teach, train, we did a little of everything ... We were younger and it showed. But I can tell you that we did it with enthusiasm and enthusiasm because we saw that here, in Spain, paddle tennis had a very good perception of the future. I remember that in 2 there were 2.002 people in the stands at most at tournaments. At this time, the World Paddle Tour Circuit has reached almost 200 fans on the grandstand. I think our vision for the future was not misguided. However, not everyone has seen this development. Every day I see how today's kids demand many things. They don't know where we came from or what we had to go through for the WPT to be here today.
How were your beginnings in Spain? When did you decide to take the step of arriving in Spain?
I came to Spain for the first time in 1.996 with Bela. The trip to Spain was the prize of a tournament in Argentina that we had won. When we arrived, we played a match against Raúl Arias and Carlos Almazán. It was a clash that we played with the 'serve and net' rules when Argentina played rest and net. We weren't used to it, it was a radical change ... When we came it was hard for us. In addition, in Spain it was played on grass and the track had peaks. It was all very different.
Did you ever think about going back to Argentina?
There are always moments of doubt but the truth is that I never doubted much. Both my parents and my wife have always supported me to continue to be linked to paddle tennis in Spain, that's why I didn't think about it much.In addition, paddle tennis in Spain was growing, more tracks were being made, we saw a future to be able to become professionals.
At what point did your life change as a padel player?
Actually, since childhood. When I went to school I saw that my life was different from the rest of the boys. Most of them went out and liked the night while I had to train or travel. I had to choose and chose the sport because my parents, since I was a child, always encouraged me that kind of values such as teamwork, effort and companionship. Not everything was easy. Sometimes the notes suffered and that hurt. I remember that in a year of Secondary I repeated the course. I think 200 days of school year had missed 150 days. The teacher told me that she could not approve me because I had not gone to class and that I passed the exams. I was lucky to study a little and pass ... But that year did not help me, hahaha.
Where does the Warrior come from? Who put it on you?
It was put to me by the person who brings me social networks, my friend Hernán Cortes, hahaha ... It's crazy, uh, an Argentine with a representative called Hernán Cortes hahaha. One day he asked me this about 'The Warrior' and the truth is I really liked it because it identifies the values that I transmit on the track. Since then I have used it.
Do you have the same values on the track as in your personal life?
I believe that people live as they play. I'm convinced of them. If you did a study of 10 people you could check it out. So, therefore, I would say yes, I play as I live. It is very difficult not to match the padel and your life, since I consider paddle tennis as a form of expression in life.
Do you have any mania on the track?
No, I do not usually have hobbies. I think one may be that I always feel on the same side of the bank, on the right side. What goes to the bathroom after the warm-up is not a mania ... It's just that when I compete my metabolism speeds up and I feel like going to the bathroom constantly.
Stay very attentive to the pages of Padel World Press because, in the coming days, we will offer you the second part of this complete interview.
Cover image: World Paddle Tour
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