Monaco: "The more you stay away from social networks, the better off you'll be".

© AFP

Clément Gehl

le 22/12/2024 à 07h49

2 min to read

Monaco

Juan Monaco, former world No. 10 and professional from 2002 to 2017, is today the founder and head of Summa Sports, an agency helping players with their careers on a professional and commercial level.

The Argentinian compares the tennis of his time with the tennis of today. He says: "Before, when we played, we weren't as exposed.

Between telephones and social networks, today there are a lot of cameras and microphones during matches.

A bad day on the pitch can cost you a sponsor. Reading a tweet can cause psychological damage.

Before, we were freer when we played, there weren't as many responsibilities.

Today, players are much more responsible for their failures, so we try to help them in that direction. How can we help?

For example, by isolating him from all these things, so that he doesn't depend so much on what's said on social networks, even if sponsors demand visibility during tournaments.

We try to prevent him from consuming this unreal virtual world, by encouraging him to live a little more in real life, in everyday life, by training and being out on the field to compete.

There's an obvious generational clash. In our case, we try to talk a lot with the juniors to understand how they think, because we know that their state of mind is not the same as ours at the time.

Whether we like it or not, they were born with a phone in their hand, immersed in social networks.

It's very difficult to make them understand that this could be counter-productive for them in competition.

If playing tennis is hard enough, imagine adding the pressure of social networks, a whole host of irrelevant things.

All this wear and tear causes psychological damage that is difficult for a young player to manage.
Our advice to this generation is that the more you stay away from social networks, the better.

The more time you spend meditating, training, resting and sharing time with family and friends, the better a competitor you'll be."