Fabio Fognini’s ex coach Jose Perlas has unveiled some secrets about the ending of his collaboration with the entertaining Italian player.
During an interview with Spanish website Punto de Break, Perlas expressed regret that the Italian had failed to break the top 10, reaching a high of 13th in March 2014.
“At the beginning they told me: ‘If you make Fabio win a tournament we’ll build a statue in Rome for you,” Perlas Joked. “I’m sorry that Fabio wasn’t able to make that step.”
Fognini and Perlas did their best to make their split-up as less bitter as possible. Speaking to Punto de Break, Perlas talks about the five years in which he coached Fabio, confirming that he ended it with regrets of not having brought Fognini higher. There is, though, satisfaction about the goals reached.
“2016 has been a tough year, marked by the injury and from the wedding with Flavia. Fabio ended up to lose a couple of months and was in good condition just for half of the time.” Said Perlas.
“Fabio asked me what I had in plan for next year and I answered clearly, ‘a renewed effort with the same frequency and the same enthusiasm’. He thought about it for about two weeks and then told me he didn’t feel strong enough for this effort, so he chose to look for new stimulations, but our relationship remained very good until the end of the professional relationship.” He added.
Often the partnership between Perlas and Fognini looked deeper than a common one between a player-coach one, and the Spaniard confirmed it: ‘Fabio made me feel part of the family and I, clearly, treated him like a second son. In these five years I passed much more time with him than with my own son.’
The time together wasn’t plain sailing for both men. Admitting that he struggled to control Fognini’s focus, Perlas believes that the Italian could have achieved much more than he did in recent years.
“His goal was about entering the top-20 and we even got higher than that, this gave me much satisfaction. The issue was making the next step, making him understand that it was worth it to make sacrifices and efforts to go beyond. I have some regrets and frustration of not having been able to provide continuity to moments in which Fabio played at his best.”
No longer guiding Fognini on the tour, Perlas believes that the Italian can achieve success in 2017. This year Fognini recorded a win-loss of 26-23 and claimed an ATP title in Umag (his first since 2014).
“With the tennis displayed in Moscow, Fabio is perfectly able to stay in his natural place in the ranking, the top-20. In 2017 he can aim for top-10, by improving his results in Slams and Masters’ 1000 and keeping doing well in 500s and 250s.” Perlas concluded about Fognni’s future.
The future is an uncertain one for Perlas. Contemplating taking a year away from coaching, he has revealed that he recently hosted a discussion with a unnamed top player about potentially coaching them.
“I’ve got in touch with several players, one top-player too, but I can’t yet tell the names.” He revelled.
