In 1997, with the victory of Gustavo Kuerten in Roland Garros, lawyer Alexandre Farias, 52, using the sudden increase in interest in the sport in the country, opened a gym aimed at Criciuma, about 190 km from Florianópolis.
The activity would later take him to the position of Tennis Director of the Mampituba Recreational Society, a traditional club of the city of Santa Catarina, and, later, to the presidency of FCT (Santa Catarina Tennis Federation).
In March, Farias took office along with the new board of the CBT (Brazilian Tennis Confederation) to comply with the term between 2025 and 2029. He was elected president of the acclaiming confederation to replace Rafael Westrupp, which had been in office since 2017.
“I think we live one of the best moments of Brazilian tennis after the Guga era,” says the manager Sheetciting the meteoric rise of João Fonseca and the presence of Bia Haddad in the top 20 in recent years, in addition to the duplists Marcelo Melo and Rafael Matos and young promises such as Victoria Barros and Naná Silva.
“Brazilian tennis is being contemplated with a very large volume of tennis players, both male and female. And a very good generation is coming,” says Farias.
Faced with the fever generated by the João Fonseca phenomenon, the president of the CBT argues that it is necessary to have patience with the development of the career of the young 18 -year -old tennis player. He points out that ups and downs are natural at that time.
“We know that John is extremely mature, focused and we have no doubt his success. But we have to know how to accept some adverse results that may reap, especially in the beginning of the journey.”
Farias also says that he intends to use the increase in interest in the modality generated by the carioca tennis player to further disseminate the practice in the country.
“It is up to us to know how to enjoy the moment and try, in a quick way, to further foster the sport through numerous actions, whether marketing or with events, to bring tennis to all corners of Brazil and make the sport better,” says Farias.
According to him, this is a work that also involves strengthening federations and clubs in the formation of new talents.
“One of our goals is to foster the federations, so that they can support the clubs and we can also have in the base categories a very strong Brazilian tennis,” says the president of CBT.
He states that the process goes less for the direction of funds – “I think this issue of welfare does not work” – and more for the technical training of professionals responsible for developing the next generations.
“The important thing is to give the federations the mechanisms for them to stand in their respective states and give quality to tennis, beach tennis and wheelchair tennis,” says Farias.
As an example, he cites the development program started in past management directed to women’s tennis, expanded this year also to the men’s category.
For the program, coaches participate in virtual and face -to -face meetings, in order to unify language and training standards, with the participation in youth tournaments to closely analyze the performance of Brazilians.
Juvenile athletes will also have the opportunity to be part of a reception program, where they and their coaches will accompany professional tennis players in competitions of the international circuit.
Mentaries to physical trainers and players’ parents are also part of the program.
“The great tennis player is born inside the clubs, the gyms, the social projects. I, who was club director and president of federation, have an obligation to support these institutions,” says Farias.
The new CBT president says he also intends to intensify the relationship with federations from now on. He points out that, because he holds positions at Cosat (South American Tennis Confederation) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Westrupp had a troubled agenda that may have made a greater narrowing of relationships difficult.
“I want to be even closer, it’s my obligation, because I don’t have three functions as it had. I have only CBT, so for me it is much easier to be close to the federations, to have this almost daily or weekly contact.”
