"The sport is too competitive” - Pella shares his tennis story

Back in 2012, Pella triumphed at 4 ATP Challenger events and broke to the TOP 100 for the first time. However, in 2013 and 2014, he was not part of it until 2015 when he triumphed at the other 4 Challenger tournaments. In 2019, he managed to win his first ATP title and became the part of TOP 25. Now, he shared his tennis story with BehindTheRacquet.

“It’s not easy when you are practicing in a small town like mine. My father used to coach me about 20 years ago. I needed him because my city didn’t have much for tennis, it was mostly basketball. Ginobili was born here so all my friends were trying to follow him. I didn’t have many people to practice with until I improved enough to travel and see who else was out there," Pella wrote.

"2014 was by far my toughest year. I was in the qualifying of a tournament where I won the first set 7-6 but was struggling the whole match. I felt confident to win the match the whole time but my mindset was negative the whole time. It was the same way in the second round and told myself I don’t want to play this way and needed to go home. It didn’t even matter if I was playing well I was so negative that I couldn’t think. I stopped playing tennis for some time. Not only did I stop enjoying the tournaments, travel, and practice, but the effort it took to play at the top level was too much for me at the time. I was thinking that I should maybe try something else, another job. It was a sad time for me because all I knew in life was tennis but now I wasn’t enjoying it. I first tried to teach some lessons when I stopped and also take some college classes, but none of that worked for me," wrote Pella.

"Deep inside I knew I only wanted to play tennis but I was fighting something in me. I wanted to get back on the court and be okay with losing a match if I worked hard in practice. That is what tennis is about. It is about making mistakes, losing matches, playing poorly, and then coming off the court and finding a new way to win. I stopped for about three months where I worked a lot on myself. I read a few self-help books and others in the world of psychology, I wasn’t playing low-level tournaments when I stopped, I was playing Grand Slams, I should have been happy, I knew something inside me had to change. After this time I started to open up more. I found out that there are some days when my parents and sisters feel sad and don’t want to leave the house. The idea that you will have good and bad days and it is just about finding your own happiness," Pella wrote.

"I wanted to come back on the court and not hit perfect forehands, backhands, or serves but to enjoy it. I wanted to enjoy it like I was a child again, I would wake up and say to myself. ‘This is going to be a good day’. I entered the ATP in Bogota and without much practice, I won my first round and lost in the second in a tight match. I thought if I could play this well with just being happy and not in shape, I need to give it all another chance. It is a problem that we never get to speak to other players. Players are sensitive and are worried about giving up too much info. Even if it is a positive players don’t want others to feel the same way, it is an individual sport. The sport is too competitive,” wrote Pella.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B_VSiNrg2sC/[/embed]