‘It would have been easier for him to blame me’ – Coach Frederic Marques on his relationship with Joao Sousa

[ad_1]

Portuguese tennis player, Joao Sousa won his first title of the year 2022, at the Maharashtra Open held in Pune last week. His long-time coach Frederico Marques spoke about the 32-year-old’s ATP win in an interview after the final match.

After coaching Sousa for so long now, Marques was certainly happy as they conquered another title in their successful run. “We are happy, that the hard work we have done and always believed in has meaning. We believe in continuity. In our past. In the direction we were going. We thought what we were doing would serve something in the future. There was a lot of resilience, a lot of perseverance from João,” the Portuguese coach said of Sousa’s win in the final game of the ATP event.

Despite being one of the most successful duos in the world of tennis, Frederico Marques and Joao Sousa have had their ups and downs when it comes to performance and training.

Sousa defeated Finnish player Emil Ruusuvuori in the final match of the Maharashtra Open, to claim the fourth title of his tennis career.

Thanking the Portuguese athlete, Marques said: “I thank him very much for believing in me. The easiest thing would have been for him to go get another coach because things weren’t going well. But he believed in the process and never blamed me for anything. Nor me to him. I blamed myself several times.

Joao Sousa with Frederic Marques after the former’s victory at the Maharashtra Open 2022

Coach Marques went on to say that he had had many sleepless nights even with his wife by his side, he kept wondering what was wrong. It wasn’t until late last year that they saw the results of the changes they’ve made over the past year.

“He was very open mentally, believed in his tennis and his movements were improving day by day. Our idea would be to start the season with ATP qualifications, but this week João ended up pulling the rabbit out of his hat and won five matches in a row,” said Frederic Marques, sharing how good the tour was physically as well as tennis-wise.

The Portuguese coach described what Joao Sousa did to be what champions do and congratulated them.

Sousa also played at the 2022 Australian Open but was outclassed by young Italian Jannik Sinner in the very first round of the Grand Slam title.

[ad_2]