The man of the moment in Chilean tennis: Alejandro Tabilo was crowned Champion of the ATP 250 in Mallorca and became the first national tennis player to win a tournament on grass.
In addition, the born in canada and Chilean at heart will displace Nicolás Jarry as the country’s first racket, since From this Monday, July 1, he will occupy the 19th place in the ATP ranking.
With this record, added to the title in Auckland at the beginning of the year, Jano goes to Wimbledon, where a particular story of how he decided to play for Chile back in 2016.
What was the bet for Alejandro Tabilo to play for Chile?
The year was 2016 and Tabilo had just shown his first weapons in tennis. Jano was born in Toronto (Canada), but His Chilean father (Ricardo) always wanted the left-hander to represent Chile..
“I I was asking my dad if I could play for Chile for a long time, but he wanted to wait“, the tennis player told Chilevisión, remembering the beginning of his decision.
That was when the key match for the now number one in Chile arrived, when through a bet with his father and in relation to Nicolás Jarry, he forged his entry into Chilean tennis.
His father Ricardo recalled that “with Alejandro we had a deal, which was that When he got into the top 400 he was going to play for Chile, because if he was too low they were going to beat him. However, he did not like this idea very much.”
“And just in September He had to face Nicolás Jarry. So I told him: “If you beat him, we’ll do the paperwork and you’ll play for Chile.” He came in like a machine and beat him.”his father told La Tercera.
In relation to that duel against Prince Jarry in 2016, Tabilo won the duel with partials of 7-6 and 6-4, so Months later he began the paperwork to obtain Chilean nationality and get closer to Viña del Mar. In fact, Jano is an Everton fan.
How were Tabilo’s beginnings as a Chilean?
The father of the champion in Mallorca says that living in Canada with his wife (also Chilean) and Alejandro Tabilothe tennis player gradually became more familiar with Chilean culture.
“I I had a folklore group and we rehearsed at my house, so Jano was always related to Chilean things.. Also, we were the first to have television there, so everyone went home to watch “Chile’s parties”Ricardo said.
Regarding the first approach on national soil, Tabilo told La Tercera that “Santiago seemed very beautiful to me, I saw La Moneda, Cerro Santa Lucía and I rode the metro”.
