Gutiérrez, then part of the Development Department of the Argentine Tennis Association and an essential piece of the Davis Cup team, both led under the figure of Daniel Orsanic, began training the diamond in the rough that was already showing its brilliance in 2015 and the first tournament together was a G3 in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. A win against the local Felipe Meligeni, the No. 1 in the tournament, convinced them that there was a long way to go.
“He was enlarged, with chains, he swung the racket, but he did it like a banana to hide, because it wasn’t like that”recalls Gutiérrez today in dialogue with Ambit in the BALTC while in the background there is applause from dozens of people crying out for the rain that will later appear to interrupt the Argentina Open.
The current coach, trained on the fields of the Arquitectura de Agronomía club, had a brief stint in the youth and futures circuits and then dedicated himself fully to training.
After the first and obvious crossovers for soda, ice cream and the occasional infrequent taste in the professional world, the results showed that this was the way to go and that society would work. “We took the plus out of a personal connection. We have had to hold on to a lot of things so that Seba can be at such a high level”counts in relation to trust and bond.
Báez was No. 1 in the world in juniors in 2018, was a finalist in Grand Slams in minors and won a youth Olympic medal in Buenos Aires. His big break happened in 2021, when he won six Challengers and played in the semis of the ATP NextGen Finals. Until then, he had achieved everything without managerial support or invitations to tournaments.
In 2022 he definitively broke into the ATP circuit: he won the Estoril tournament and reached the final in Santiago de Chile and Bastad. The change was absolute. “He had a ranking that forced him to play very big tournaments, he couldn’t escape the Masters 1000 because he entered directly, but he was just starting out and he got points elsewhere. He played a lot, he finished the year a little tired ”Gutiérrez points out.
“For me it is everything, I could not be here without him. Sometimes I don’t want there to be another person next to him, ”said Báez in 2021 after winning the Challenger in Buenos Aires. A concept that can be extrapolated to Gutiérrez’s conception: “If you talk about an athlete, for me, you talk about the person, over the athlete. It’s fundamental”.
Journalist: After the title in Córdoba, the first thing Báez did was express his affection for you. Is it your greatest triumph?
Sebastian Gutierrez: We always hold on to that trust that we have between us. We had come from so many months in which it was difficult to smile after a game, I thought it was great that he can stop and give affection. In short, when one gives, he also receives. In that case, he had it with me and it made me very happy.
Q: What value do you give to the link?
SG: We spend more time off the pitch than on it, so if we don’t get along or if we have different values, it becomes unbearable for me. I am not in tennis at any cost. I am in a way, to live, to share, to respect each other. That is much more important than tennis, that you end up learning. The beliefs that one has about oneself, which are sometimes not the best, the only way you can break is with support and trust with whoever is with you.
Q: What is it like outside the court? Is there a lot of tennis or do you share other things?
SG: We play Play, listen to music, and now we can have separate rooms to have our moments. Before we couldn’t, we all went together. There is everything, but above all there is a lot of shock, because he is a 22-year-old boy. Not everything is yes in his head, so you have to convince him that he can. That is the difficult part of coaching a player whose personality has not yet been formed. He’s in that process where they ask for a photo and then he loses three games and wonders what happened. That is the challenge, that his self-esteem rises, that he does not lose his humility.
Gutiérrez is recognized as a coach who aims “A lot to the person, the tactical amuses me a lot and I know that the technical is the vehicle for the tactical to be carried out. I enjoy everything”. He does not find a reference in football terms, but he does accept that he is looking for “information” in other names in the world of tennis.
“I learned a lot from other coaches, I try to find information. Mariano Hood was a great consultant of mine, as was Orsanic. I always looked for information in the aspects that I needed, with the tranquility of the last decision I have, ”he describes himself.
In this context, during the Cordoba Open and the Argentina Open, Gutiérrez and Báez attached a source of consultation: Javier Frana. The tennis player, for the moment, is not a stable member of the group that also makes up martiniano orazi, physical trainer. The objective was to find alternatives for the present of the current number 36 in the ranking, which between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 accumulated 16 defeats in 17 games.
“I like the variants, that the player I have understands the game, that he can shoot a slice, that he understands tactics, strategy, where to return, where to play,” he argues.
Q: What meaning do you give to Orsanic’s presence every time Báez plays?
SG: I am loyal to my people, and we have a nucleus of people who are important from an affective point of view. Daniel’s dad was like a dad to me. Daniel is when he can, and he has always tried to support. It gives me joy, as he does, that other friends come who have even had Seba living with them during the pandemic. That is an energy that is differential and that I don’t think everyone has it.
Q: How do you mentally train a youngster to understand that streaks are just streaks?
SG: The challenge is for him to understand that it’s not worth it because he loses a game, and that’s a job. Many times an athlete feels that he is worthless because he lost a match. It is to accompany him, bank the bad moments. We spent December 31 with him and Martiniano in India. It was very hard, because on top of that Seba arrived trained very well but sick. We accompanied him, we were with him, we tried to convince him, I got angry with him, because he put himself in a place of throwing himself down. He is very exhausting, more than anything for those of us who have a family, we travel the world. The work we have is beautiful, but sometimes it is a constant struggle.
Q: It is an anger that seeks to raise
SG: Of course, it is anger to try to change the other, to get out of the place where it is placed. In short, it is being there, the best possible, because many times you feel bad, you don’t want to train, you eat badly, you sleep badly. One of Báez’s values is that the soul continues to be broken, win or lose. But he gives the plus when he feels good about himself. Like any person.
It is precisely his improvement in confidence that, in Gutiérrez’s opinion, led him to win his second ATP title (he won Estoril in 2022). “It happened in Córdoba, that he won a couple of matches and was better, but here it happened that he lost with Dusan Lajovic playing well, with issues to improve, but with a great level of tennis. Then he begins to feel better, which is ultimately what you want, because you want him and you want him to be well ”.
Solid, physically gifted, prepared to err less than average. A general evaluation that Gutiérrez makes of his pupil, who with his arrival on the major circuit “was in a hurry to shoot because there are fewer spaces.” “He has to sustain his game and continue with his learning”, he evaluates.
His arrival at the Davis cup it was in 2021, with a 1-3 record in singles. Gutiérrez, key man of the team that achieved glory in 2016 in Zagreb, remembers with enthusiasm and joy those days of heroic nights. “The Cup gave me a group of people that I know I can consult. And it also gave me something that I hope will be repeated, but for now it has only been lived once. I always felt very lucky to be there, that Daniel and Mariano Hood trusted me as they did”he expresses with a smile of someone who knows that he was part of a historic moment.
Those national team hours forged a special bond between the coach, the protégé and the super athlete: Juan Martin del Potrowho today maintains a very good relationship with Báez and is “a consultant” for the 22-year-old tennis player, especially during the series against the Czech Republic that marked the debut of the tennis player from San Martín.
Tennis seems to have entered a new phase of evolution in which power prevails over anything. “Everything is very fast, with very strong players, but the best don’t make mistakes”says Gutierrez. The circuit advances and also forces to improve the blows, the physique and the mentality. On this path, sacrificed and demanding, the Sebastianes travel.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
