When Victoria Barros and Nauhany Silva, both 15, were announced as guests of the main key of SP Open, there were those who wrote their nose. They were, after all, girls, exposed to a WTA 250, tournament below only the WTA 500, the WTA 1000 and the four Grand Slams on the female tennis circuit.
Their performance last week at Villa-Lobos Park, in the west of São Paulo, made those who made the bet. Nauhany, known as Naná, and Victoria, each in his own way, managed to display his talent and present themselves as the future of the female modality in Brazil.
“We are on the right track,” summarized Paulistana Naná, who lived a remarkable week. In the same Villa-Lobos where he sought free courts with his father, the young woman who grew up in a humble area of the real neighborhood of Parque showed her credentials in her first elite championship, organized by WTA, the Association of Professional Tennis players.
She debuted by beating compatriot Carolina Meligeni Alves, 29, 237th in the world. “I was not imagining passing the first round, not,” he admitted, with a childish smile, before adopting a professional tone, saying that he had to “thank the invitation”, in cuddle to the director of the competition, Luiz Carvalho.
So have been the lives of Nauhany and Victoria, an attempt to balance what is expected of someone of 15 years and what is expected of someone with high potential in the sport. There are responsibilities with coaches, sponsors and journalists. There are also teenagers who still try to understand their place in the world.
No moment of SP Open has been as illustrative of this conflict as Victoria’s defeat to the 23-year-old American Whitney Osuigwe who arrived in Sao Paulo as the 136th in the world. In an interview on the court, the young woman took the microphone and boarded a flow of frantic awareness.
The Christmas tennis player began her speech congratulating the opponent in English, then thanked the public in Portuguese. Expressed joy with participation in the tournament and frustration with defeat. Then he began to talk about his own mother, present in the stands of Maria Esther Bueno, and cry.
“I learned a lot today. I played against a top 150 and saw that I have a game, but immaturity and inexperience weighed a lot. I want to thank my mother for being here every day, it is not easy to put up with me,” he soared, part of a speech that had tears, laughs and a scream at the end: “Here is Brazil!”.
Minutes later, he gave an interview to journalists accredited to the event. He repeated the pattern observed on the court, nominally thanking the championship leaders, trying to talk about technical details of the game and then showing more vulnerable.
“Life out of tennis is very difficult for a tennis athlete. We don’t stay at home a long time, we don’t see the family. We don’t have a normal life, we can’t go to school, we can’t have a normal person,” Potiguar said, who also cited “intrusive thoughts” and “a fight within himself.”
Victoria crashed in the first round of the simple key and also in the Sp Open pairs, next to Naná. Already Naná, after the victory over Carol Meligeni, lost to Argentina Solana Sierra, 21, head of key number two and then 82nd in the world ranking.
The two young women are quite protected by their respective coaches teams. The professionals involved in the preparation of each – and also their families – seem to understand the difficult task of walking the tight rope of high performance sports with 15 -year -old girls.
Last week, both had their first experience in a WTA tournament. They saw closely how they prepare for the athletes well -established athletes, such as the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, now 25 in the world ranking.
“I think this is the coolest part. We can see the environment of the pros. They are more professional in everything: eating, sleeping… they do everything neat, focus the details,” noted the powerful Naná, who gave the fastest withdrawal of the competition: 195 km/h.
She left the SP Open larger than she entered, which has almost nothing to do with the jump from the adult ranking to the 787th. It was the first step in the elite of the circuit to her (35th in the youth ranking) and for Victoria (19th in the youth ranking, 1,289th in adults), which have a long way to go.
“We will learn more, with defeats, victories, but we will continue to evolve,” promised Victoria, in that frantic flow of conscience, between crying and laughter. “I’m going back stronger. I love you!”
