I was born and grew up in Brighton and spent the whole of my youth focused on academy studies. I received a place at Imperial College London to study Mechanical Engineering – at the time number 5 in the world in ‘The Times University Rankings’.
I had a graduate job at Booz & Co one of the top 4 global management consultancies along with McKinsey. I had dedicated my life to achieve a £40,000+ a year graduate job salary in the heart of London’s West End. However a three months trip through South America changed me (maybe it was the venom of the giant rainforest ant that bit me!?!?). I returned a Spanish speaking, salsa dancing naturist. I decided to pursue my passion, tennis, which I had put on hold to concentrate on my academy studies.
I have now spent the last two years working with two Cuban coaches in Mallorca (Spain), my ex-coach Rufino Sanchez and my current coach Elisa Sarmiento Aranda, my physical trainer Luis Emilio Ramos of Miranda Gym, physio Cati Llombart and my sports masseuse Teresa Miranda of Miranda Gym training 6 days a week, 6 hours a day for 52 weeks of the year to get myself physically, technically, tactically, and mentally prepared for the high demands of professional tennis and sport in general with the help of these amazing people including the Spanish family with whom I was living. I have been able to keep my monthly expenses around £400 on average allowing me to squeeze everything out of my savings. The monthly cost at an academy is £2000 MINIMUM.
Injury
My coach and I had originally planned to start a tour of Britain playing professional tournaments from August 2013 but while training in Mallorca I suffered a Grade 3 tear in my interior tibiofibular ankle ligament. It was such a silly accident it’s almost funny. While hitting an inside-out forehand in the air, a ball fell out of my pocket (like Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon semi-finals) and when I landed, I landed right on top of it. A special ‘new-age’ leg-cast, state-of-the-art Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injection treatment courtesy of the Balearic Islands Tennis Federation and the fantastic doctor Gustavo Akrich Rodriguez plus 2 months
of rehabilitation (swimming pool, balance, gym, stretches, resistance bands, playing tennis in a chair!!! [so boring but better than doing nothing]) followed.
The Plan
Now, the plan is to get back to 100% physical fitness before in 2014 moving to Valencia to train at the Masia academy. My coach Elisa Sarmiento Aranda and I will then start travelling to tournaments in mid-2014. This blog will try and give an insight into the journey of a ‘nobody’ into a ‘somebody’ – a guy with currently no ranking but with an objective to win a medal in the 2016 Olympics. I hope you enjoy it.