Etcheverry's emotional setback: 'I cried on the court'

ATP Tour

Tomas Martin Etcheverry walked off the court in tears amidst an emotional scene at his home tournament, the IEB+ Argentina Open in February.

The 24-year-old was forced to retire with a hamstring injury during a thrilling back-and-forth battle with Nicolas Jarry, who had just sent the match into a decider. Etcheverry’s family and friends were among the packed stadium as the crushing, abrupt setback struck the home favourite.

“I cried on the court I remember… First because I felt terrible [pain] in my leg, very painful. But I think at that moment when that happened, I knew inside I was going to be out of the Tour for a period,” Etcheverry told ATPTour.com. “That match was special because if I win that, then in the semi-finals, it’s going to be against Carlos Alcaraz.

“It was tough for the mental part. I saw all the tournaments [ahead], Rio, Chile and I didn’t play there. It’s part of the sport and I know that it can maybe happen again in the future. The truth is that it was my first injury on the Tour.”

Etcheverry returned to action after six weeks away from the match court. He quickly found his best form of the season, reaching the semi-finals in Houston, his second tournament back. 'Tomy' later reached the last four at an ATP 500 for the first time in Barcelona.

Tied at his career-high No. 27 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Etcheverry, who will be defending quarter-final points at Roland Garros, is reaping the rewards of an intentional recovery period, during which he enjoyed visiting the cinema in any downtime.

“I tried to stay focussed and did a lot of fitness sessions, physio sessions trying to recover fast,” said Etcheverry, who is seeded second at this week’s Open Aix Provence Credit Agricole, an ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in southern France. “My physio Andres Romañuk, he stayed with me all the time and in the six weeks after the injury, we worked together day by day to get on court as soon as I can.”

Etcheverry, who is one of three Argentines inside the Top 30 (Baez, Cerundolo), wants to improve his game on hard courts to climb even higher in the PIF ATP Rankings. He showed that he is more than capable of winning on that surface at the Australian Open, where he downed Andy Murray and Gael Monfils before falling to Novak Djokovic in the third round.

“I have to improve on different surfaces on the Tour,” Etcheverry said. “I am trying to be more aggressive at some moments of the match. If I go and play the big tournaments, I need to get some big results there and that’s going to give me the opportunity to improve more on the ranking.”