WELLNESS

Court Ambition

Ranked third in Japan’s national junior tennis standings, 16-year-old Member Hugo Loing discusses his dream of playing the sport he loves professionally.

Iwas around 5 years old when I hit my first tennis ball. We moved to Nashville in the States, where I won a few tournaments and was top five in the state for under 10s at one point. I won the [Tennessee] state championships in doubles and finished third in the singles. Winning was nice, but it wasn’t my main focus. I just enjoyed playing tennis.

I learned the American style of play there. In Europe, where clay is the main surface, it’s about consistency and trying to force the error on the other player. Whereas America is mostly hard court and a lot more fast-paced, making it a more aggressive, attacking style.

In 2018, I went for a summer camp at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca for a week. I was one of five [juniors] to be offered a place. At first, we were a bit hesitant, but then we thought it would be a shame to miss the opportunity. I started in September of 2018 and spent a year there.

There was an American school at the academy. We finished school at around 1 o’clock and then it was tennis and fitness for the afternoon. Saturdays were match practice. All the kids were super competitive.

A lot of big tennis players came to the academy. I remember one day I was on the clay courts and Nadal was training on one court and [Naomi] Osaka was training on the next court. That was quite special.

Toni Nadal, Rafa’s coach, worked with my group quite a lot. I had oneon-ones with him, which was really good. I enjoyed my time there and it made me a better player. Coming back, I can tell I matured a lot.

Now I am training in Yokohama with coach [Toru] Yonezawa, who is [Kei] Nishikori’s former coach and has worked with many successful players. I train there around four hours a day, five days a week. In general, the Japanese style of training is definitely more rigorous.

Due to the pandemic, the first ITF [International Tennis Federation junior circuit tournament] I played in was only in late 2020. It was a firstlevel tournament, and I managed to get through the first-round qualifiers. Over the summer, I played in higherlevel ITF tournaments, and I just felt much better.

My first ITF tournament in the summer was in San Marino. I played my second [competition] in Italy, where I lost to an eventual finalist. I then flew to Serbia on a wild card to compete in two of the highest-level ITF tournaments. The tournaments were exceptional for me, but these guys are doing it every other weekend. Tennis is a lot about experience.

From now until Christmas, I have three ITF tournaments in Japan. I want to try and win a main draw match and get on the leaderboard.

My main goal is to become professional. Obviously, I have to find a balance between tennis and my studies. It does take some sacrifices, but I think I manage the balance. If, for some reason, I don’t become professional, going to an American university and playing tennis there would be amazing.

Hugo Loing

As told to INTOUCH’s Nick Jones.