Cuevas, from traveling by kayak from one country to another, to fulfilling his dreams: “Tennis continues to excite me” | ATP Tour

Pablo Cuevas

Cuevas, from traveling by kayak from one country to another, to fulfilling his dreams: “Tennis continues to excite me”

The 38-year-old Uruguayan says goodbye to tennis and tells how he will continue to be linked to his rackets

September 25, 2024

Pablo Cuevas could carry a cataract of scrolls in more than 20 years of career, but it all started as a simple game and fun that ended up leading him to become the best tennis player in the history of Uruguay, where today he still thinks about making his contribution to that others can follow their own path.

A long time before, when he was barely 10 years old, every day he crossed alone, by kayak, one of the largest rivers in America: he rowed four kilometers, 35 minutes, crossing from one country to another, to get to play tennis, daily. He was driven by a dream.

It happens that Cuevas was leaving school in Concordia, Argentina, but his tennis group was on the other side, in Salto, Uruguay. That’s why I went from one country to another every day, and even the other kids’ parents asked their parents if they weren’t scared. The son of an Argentine father and a Uruguayan mother, as a child there was nothing that stopped Cuevas from training and having fun, and boy did it pay off in the long run.

“Tennis prepared me, it made me know the world, it made me know myself… that was the objective with which I started when I wanted to play tennis because it was what I had fun with and I was able to enjoy the journey a lot,” said the Uruguayan for ATPTour.com, the day after announcing his retirement.

Cuevas was No. 19 in the PIF ATP Rankings in 2016, won six titles on the ATP Tour and achieved 242 victories at this level, including three against members of the Top 5. “When I was a kid I didn’t even know what it means to be a tennis player, and I didn’t have a ranking that I wanted to be either, I just wanted it to be my profession: then I found myself with much more, being Top100, Top50, winning tournaments, but everything was always far beyond the numerical,” he defines without hesitation.

What has been your best memory? “There is no specific moment or tournament that I stay with… I stay more with what all these years were like, and the lessons that tennis left me to apply both on and off the court,” he says confidently and with a smile. .

When his aspirations began to take shape, Cuevas went to live in Buenos Aires and thus he made his way, passing through the Futures, the ATP Challengers, until in 2007 he was able to debut in ATP tournaments and even debuted in a Grand Slam: he surpassed US Open qualification and lost in the first round of the main draw with Andy Murray. A year later, he became Roland Garros doubles champion along with the Peruvian Luis Horna (in the quarterfinals they beat the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, then the No. 1).

However, when everything was going well, in 2011, an injury to his right knee shook his foundation. He went through crutches, moments of sadness and believing that he had lost everything, and he even thought about changing sports and trying professional golf. But he endured, he recovered, and after more than two years of hiatus he returned for more to record his best records. “There was everything: I even started my family in the middle. It is a sport that hits you, that you lose much more than you win, but competing, knowing how to get up and turn the page is something unique,” ​​he said, proudly. His wife Clara and his daughters, Alfonsina and Antonia will now have a little more time at home.

Meanwhile, as an anecdote, it remains for Cuevas that almost daily many people remind him of his best shots, always viral, and a compilation of hot shots of the most prominent ones on the entire circuit. However, for him, it was something improvised and natural.

We will miss you, @PabloCuevas22 🥺

The 🇺🇾 puts an end to a career full of achievements and magical points 👏

📽️: @TennisTVpic.twitter.com/LiDxeuyBQY

— ATP Tour in Spanish (@ATPTour_ES) September 25, 2024

“It came without looking for it, I never practiced them and I wasn’t waiting for the moment to make that type of plays, it was all spontaneous: I never imagined making magic points and I know that it draws attention, although I like to see them,” he admits, without being able to stay with one favorite among so many.

Cuevas, meanwhile, is convinced that he will remain linked to tennis and has already gotten down to work.

“With Facu (Savio, his friend and former coach) we are working with many boys and girls, we are from 8, 10, 12, 13, to 16 years old… and we want to put together something nice and competitive to try to transmit my experience and in I think Uruguay was something that is missing,” he said. “Tennis continues to entertain me, it excites me and it will always be a part of me,” he predicted.