Eva Guerrero, the young Spanish Under 23 champion, who dreams of making it in the WTA

By Daniel Muñoz Pozo, Head of Communications & Media at Sánchez-Casal Academy.

This is the story of Eva Guerrero Álvarez (19 years old, from Almería) who since 2017 has been a player in the Sánchez-Casal Academy. It is the story of a girl who at the age of 5 fell in love with tennis, who has a passion that she lives for 365 days a year, and who dreams of becoming a professional tennis player: something that requires immense amounts of effort, and full-time dedication.

“When I was 5 years old, I used to attend the after-school tennis program in my city, and I liked it: I wasn’t a bad player. With the support of my family, I got more involved with tennis. Nowadays, tennis is both my job and my passion: I have dedicated, and continue to dedicate, most of my life to it,” Eva says.

The National Champion of U-14 and U-16, Eva has an incredible junior record despite having to overcome injuries in 2016, and having to live the hardships of the tennis life. She faced these challenges with courage, and learned many lessons in the process. In her words “it’s hard when you’re injured, it’s a real blow, but you have to think that it will make you stronger, that you will value everything more afterwards, and that it is simply another part of the sport that you love”.

Since the end of 2017, Eva has been training in the Sánchez-Casal Academy, at the ASC Barcelona headquarters, under the supervision of coach Antonio Capella. She describes this as a great opportunity, because “they support me all year round, they try to help me, and I only have words of gratitude. It’s a really nice experience to live on campus and be able to share your stories with others on a daily basis”.

In 2018 she reached 312 in the WTA ranking, reaching the final and three semifinals of $25,000 each. She earned a bronze medal in doubles in the Mediterranean Games, and became the Under-23 National Champion. Her goal is to get into next year’s Australian Open Qualy, maybe even the top 150 WTA, and she’s focused every day on giving her best performance in order to help her achieve these goals.

“My win at the National Masters was very special and the final was extremely hard. My goal is not necessarily to get a specific ranking, although I’d love to be in the top 150, but my real goal is to reach the Qualys of the next Australian Open”, Eva affirms.

That 5-year-old girl who fell in love with tennis and made a successful career for herself on the Junior Circuit shows signs of maybe following in the steps of other top Sanchez-Casal Alumni, like Sveta Kuznetsova, Andy Murray, or Grigor Dimitrov.

Daniel Muñoz Pozo
Head of Communications & Media at Sánchez-Casal Academy.