By Daniel Muñoz, Head of Communications & Media at Sánchez-Casal Academy
The clay court is the meeting point for a huge number of stories, experiences and encounters. Roland Garros 2016 has been very special for Sánchez-Casal, because it’s been full of emotion, friendship and stories on Parisian soil.
The protagonist of our first story is champion Garbiñe Muguruza, who stated that Roland Garros “is the tournament which every player who lives in Spain dreams of winning”. Garbiñe has been to the Sánchez-Casal Barcelona site twice – first with her coach to practice rapid turns, and later on to prepare for the qualifying round of the Fed Cup with Conchita Martinez – so her Parisian victory felt truly special.
The second story is linked to a double success: Sánchez-Casal. The doubles team marked an era, made history at Roland Garros, and this year saw another Spanish triumph in men’s doubles: Feliciano and Marc López.
Emilio Sánchez Vicario, who was in Chicago conducting courses for coaches with the ICI alongside Luis Mediero (the week before they were giving courses at the Sánchez-Casal site in Florida), sent a message of congratulations, while closely following the actions of a player that was once his pupil: Andy Murray.
The third story stars Murray, one of our alumni. Almost crowned the winner of Roland Garros, Murray demonstrated himself to be champion that he is, as well as his determination and movement on the court. His values are reflected in this video coinciding with the Paris event launched by Standard Life, in which Murray himself looks back on his history with Sánchez-Casal.
We head to the Juniors category for the fourth story, where Sánchez-Casal alumni Rebeka Masarova proved her physical strength, work ethic, and the winning mentality which she showed us many years earlier on the courts of the academy both in training and tournament matches.
The main characters of the fifth story are the younger players, like those on Saturday (coinciding with Garbiñe at the women’s final), who played the finals of the Tennis Europe U12 Tournament at Sánchez-Casal, and those in Florida who played the WTA a few weeks ago. At every prize giving ceremony we see how boys and girls who take part in our tournaments go on to make history in the ATP, WTA or others, fundamental to their own story of success in North American universities.
To close the first of life’s sets, after Roland Garros, the sixth story will star our student-tennis players from the ES International School and Sánchez-Casal when they graduate in a few weeks’ time. The story will culminate with a meeting (for the first time in more than 16 years of our history) where we will reunite alumni from all over the world in Barcelona.
And the stories to come, life’s sets to come, will be written this coming summer of 2016 at Sánchez-Casal, both in Florida and Barcelona. As for all the boys and girls that join us… all of them will all experience their own stories, and will be the protagonists of others.
Daniel Muñoz
Head of Communications & Media at Sánchez-Casal Academy
