From champion to coach: Cabal returns to the US Open, five years after winning it | ATP Tour

US Open

From champion to coach: Cabal’s return to the US Open

This is his 5th tournament traveling as coach of his compatriot Nicolás Barrientos

August 30, 2024

Since retiring from the ATP Tour exactly one year ago, Juan Sebastián Cabal has done everything: spending more time with his family, establishing a padel club in his native Cali, helping to create a national padel tour in Colombia, stepping up his social media management, giving motivational talks to companies alongside Robert Farah, publishing an autobiography of the Colombian Power —as the duo was known—, and much more.

The former world No. 1 in doubles has not stopped.

So much so that a few months ago he began his career as a coach, guiding his compatriot Nicolás Barrientos and travelling with him to some tournaments, such as the current US Open. “I would never have imagined that a year after retiring I would be here as a coach,” the Colombian explained in a chat with ATPTour.com.

“I retired because I wanted to be at home, calm, with my family, without having to travel 10 months a year. But in this case it was a friend who asked me for help and because of my personality I couldn’t say no. How could I not help him? We’ll see which tournaments we’ll go to because my priority is still my family,” he added.

One of the 46 finals Cabal played in his career was precisely with Barrientos, ten years ago in Bogotá (they finished runners-up). They know each other so well that Nicolás, currently No. 52 in the doubles ranking, knows what to expect with Cabal as a coach, and he has reaffirmed it this week at the US Open, where he is already in the second round alongside Tunisian Skander Mansouri.

“He’s quite lively!” Barrientos jokes about Cabal. “Sometimes I have to tell him to calm down a bit so I can calm down, otherwise I’ll get carried away. But I really liked him. He has a lot of experience, which gives me confidence. And he’s very committed, he’s always aware of everything and always wants to help me.”

“If I’m going to do things, I’m going to do them well,” Cabal says, referring to his passion. “And I’m not doing this to get paid or to say that I was here. I’m doing it to help and contribute.”

That formula also proved successful for him as a player. There’s a reason he won 20 titles, and racked up nearly 400 victories in the sport on the ATP Tour (record 394-255), 93 of them in Grand Slams. His path to winning his last of two majors, at the US Open, reflects his philosophy of pushing himself to the limit even when the circumstances may be unfavorable.

“If at Wimbledon [2019] “We won by playing great matches, but not here. We didn’t feel the ball too much throughout the tournament. After each match we went out to continue looking for that ‘feeling’, Robert to serve and volley, I went to the gym or to continue recovering. We weren’t comfortable or at the level we knew we could play, but in the end there are about ten days a year when things go incredibly well,” explains Cabal.

“In the end it’s how you compete. And that’s what happened five years ago at this tournament. Even though we didn’t feel like we were playing as well as we would have liked, we knew what we had to do on the court and we were full of confidence.”

It’s been five years since that feat, winning the US Open without being 100% and losing just one set along the way. Every so often, walking around the complex these days, he is interrupted by memories of that fortnight that he will never forget.

“When you pass through certain places, such as the courts or the corridor to the centre court, the feelings of that moment come back to you. You remember how you fought in that match, how you won another. These are beautiful memories that will remain forever.”

Now he hopes to create more indelible memories, but as his friend Nicolás’ coach.