santiago gonzález This is proof that age cannot justify not playing at the highest level. In February he turned 40 and although for this reason he was filled with questions about the new generation of mexican tennis playershe showed that after 22 years of career you can win the best title of a career.

The double champion of the Masters 1000 in Miami Open attended The Economist to talk about how the rise in the ATP rankings adjusts life plans. Retirement is no longer an option and off-court projects like the Academy, its clothing brand and its property investment will have to wait their turn for full-time attention.

Today, after his first master’s degree, matters in Santiago have taken a different turn. with two trophies ATP in the first three months of 2023, the question is: how to stay at this level?

Santiago started April at number 19 in the doubles rankings, the best position of his career and just a year ago he celebrated his highest position in the rankings, at 22.

—Do you think the biggest title of your career took a long time to arrive?

—“It’s the biggest title I’ve won in my career and of course it wasn’t at the start, more at the end, but I’m glad it happened. Sooner or later I was looking for this type of titles in this category, I had missed some of them as happened during the Roland Garros Grand Slam (with Donald Young in 2017) and this gives me the motivation to keep going and keep looking for these types of titles”.

To win your first Masters 1000 (with Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin) beat in the final the dumbbell of Austin Krajicek (USA) and Nicolas Mahut (France), the Colombians of the 16 ATP titles combined, Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah, and the doubles number world number 1: Wesley Koolhof (Netherlands) and Neal Skupsk (Great Britain). Santiago-Edouard found in less than a month the Colombians Cabal-Farah in the Monte-Carlo Masters, the first rival team, now on clay.

“This year we have a big goal, now with these good results it’s a year that’s just starting and we just have to go. The rise in the rankings changes the calendar, in the type of tournaments that “you have to put in place to go as well as possible, because in the end we play against the best, in the best tournaments in the world. It’s Monte Carlo, then Barcelona, ​​the Madrid and Rome Masters to arrive at Roland Garros, the clay-court season”.

Santiago has a total of 20 titles in ATP doubles and non-tour competitions. He represented Mexico at the Davis Cup and the Pan American Games, he obtained two gold medals, one in Santo Domingo 2003, another in Guadalajara 2011 (mixed) and in Rio de Janeiro 2007 he won bronze .

Among the 20 titles ATP this year, he won two with Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin on the hard courts of Miami and Marseille (ATP 250). With American Scott Lipsky he celebrated seven trophies and with Argentinian Andres Molteni four. Both with the Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner and with the Polish Mariusz Fyrstenberg he was crowned twice (with each). It’s Santiago’s first time playing with 39-year-old Roger, who was also eyeing the culmination of his career, but age was not a factor in the negotiation to form a team.

“The players know the level of each of us, we don’t put numbers in terms of age. You can play a 20 year old player with a 40 year old player, the chemistry on and off the pitch is much more than what you can do within the strategy or the schedule that they have Roger and I are in a good phase, at the end of our tennis career, maybe with three or four more career years and that’s finished, I hope these years we can do it at a high level, continue to dream big”.

For his part, Edouard, who has been dealing with hip recovery for several years, told L’Equipe this year that he “has the impression that I can still play for a long time. Physically no problem. I prepare well, I train well. There is no reason not to continue. I found a good combination with Santiago (González). We play a lot of golf together. He too is married and has two children under 10, like me, we have the same balance, we are from the same year. We like to travel as a family. We know we’re at the end of our career, but we want to have fun.”

In the first 24 hours after lifting the trophy in Miami, Santiago told the ATP news page that he was in the best moment of his sports career and confirmed it in a conversation with this newspaper: “I had a third wind last time. It’s true, with these kinds of results in the last few years and I feel good, tennis and mentally, the family supports me, my son does not want me to retire , I will continue to play. In five years, when he is 15 and I am 45, I will try to give him his first steps in tennis”.

—Was it hard not to think about age?

—“Sometimes it’s complicated because they remind me a lot. Especially the press and in the Mexican Tennis Federation, in the Davis Cup, they say that ‘if we are going to have new generations’, and look here we are, at 40 years old, at my best moment, in my best ranking, this is not is not easy. The doubles career is longer than the singles one and perhaps it was not customary before to continue playing with more than 40 years old, but today you see a Rafael Nadal with 37 years old and with several tennis players over 30 years old. Physically, the players are better cared for. than what was done before, it gives us a way to extend our careers.

The reactions the title provoked in Miami turned to messages of support, but not to more sponsors or promoters. The Canadian brand Lululemon Athletica supplies the competition clothing, Wilson the racquets and runs monthly campaigns with Ultra Michelob and Grupo Martí.

“I hope something good can come out of it, because these sponsorships don’t go into my bag, it’s money that is reinvested to continue traveling with a coach, a work team, looking for good results and represent Mexico to the best of my ability.

Suspended projects

Academia, a clothing brand and real estate are becoming Santiago González’s full-time future. During the pandemic, amid the uncertainty of how long sports inactivity would take, Santiago spoke with The Economist When launching his clothing brand back then, he teamed up with a friend from his native Veracruz to create the designs. ‘Santi’ began to promote his brand, he distributed caps in the tournaments he participated in, and today this plan has not expired, the brand continues to promote him so that he gains strength in subsequent planes, such as the Academy.

“During the pandemic, I created the brand so that when I retired I could use this logo for the Academy. I continue to make caps, not so much to make money, but to make people feel ‘permeate the brand’.

In the last two years, in his statements, the project to become a coach and to continue investing in real estate in Veracruz, where he has built and sold houses in Huatusco, has also been strengthened.

“Being a coach, because in the end what I do best is sport. I will try to support Mexican tennis players to follow them, where the professionals, the young people, the “roads” that exist in tennis, where the professional or university stage have to go. Preparing for that is something different from knowing how to teach people what you have learned. (…) I focused on my career and the only tennis player I have supported is my son, with him I start to practice the coaching stage, I travel 30 to 35 weeks a year and it is difficult for me to tell everything and when I do it, I want to do it well, that’s why I didn’t open a tennis academy, because when I do it, I want to be 100%.

Before arriving at retirement, Santiago knows what will follow.

marisol.rojas@eleconomista.mx