Another story related to the Argentine coach Raúl Pérez Roldán has been made known in the PodCast “3 Iguales”. The Podcast shed a light on the relationship that Roldan had with some of his pupils and how he mistreated them.
Maximo Gonzalez, current number 24 in the world in doubles and Davis Cup player, told his story in the tennis Podcast and made some appalling comments regarding his relationship with the coach at the beginning of his career.
“One day he told me ‘you’re a dog with a racket,’ but you can make it to the top 200 or 300 in the world. You’ll make a living with tennis, maybe you’ll be an instructor, maybe you’ll play in Interclubs or tournaments, but you’ll make a living with tennis. In any case you’re a dog,” revealed the Tandil player.
The story didn’t end with that mistreatment, such episodes happened day after day: “It was such a terrible psychological abuse. I was always crying, I spent nights and nights in tears.”
Maximo commented that the abuse was psychological, but one day the line was almost completely crossed and it became physical: “As long as I won tournaments, things were fine, but if I lost he would tell me I was an ass. He never laid a hand on me, but one day, after a match, he brutally grabbed me by the shirt. Fortunately I managed to wriggle away.”
The words of the 38-year-old player and winner of 11 ATP doubles titles are incredible, almost beyond imagination. Maximo goes on saying that “In a training session he told me that I wasn’t moving enough and he started hitting me with balls, aiming at my calves. Even if I was half lame and in pain, I had to start moving.”
To conclude his story, the player from Tandil explained how the relationship that almost cut him off from the tennis world ended: “I had to leave tennis, that’s how it went. I was in the top 700 and I told Raul that I didn’t want to play anymore. I had three and a half years left on my contract, so we needed a lot of money to nullify it. I went back to Tandil and, together with my father, we went to see Raul and the sponsors. I told them that if we didn’t organise something that would bring results, I would quit tennis. Fortunately, I also had a wonderful French family who trusted me and put an end to my ordeal.”
Editors Note: This story first appeared on ubitennis.es and has been translated by Alice Nagni and Kingsley Elliot Kaye. Gonzalez’s comments comes almost two years after Roldan’s son Guillermo spoke publically about being physical abused by his father.
