“Inside Russia, 7.5 thousand children play in competitions, in Spain, perhaps, we are talking about a million people” – Tarpishchev

President of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) Shamil Tarpischev spoke about the training of young tennis players in Russia.

“In hockey, Kharlamov or Ovechkin are not born every year,” Metaratings.ru quotes Tarpishchev. “It’s the same in tennis. We have a system that consistently delivers results. Which country has won 36 Grand Slams and seven Cups? We may be the only such nation. But it is more difficult for us to prepare an athlete, because we have to work precisely. We have a selection at a young age, but this is a narrow contingent. We don’t have one like in Spain, where tennis is almost at the level of physical education, it is played in all schools.

But what we do is an indicator of how the system works. We have seven and a half thousand children playing in competitions in Russia, and in Spain, perhaps, we are talking about a million people. We rely more on methodological knowledge than on natural selection, which we, by definition, cannot have because of the climate and remoteness from tennis events. Already at the average age of 17–19, we must look for base points in various countries of the world.

– Are these points now more difficult to find?

– They have become smaller, but not difficult. Now the training of young animals is carried out with the help of friendly countries.

“We don’t go to Europe anymore, do we?”

Why not? We have won tournaments in 74 countries, including the main countries: Germany, France, USA and others. The only question is that it has become more difficult to fly. From the position of forming the age of 13 to 17, this does not interfere in any way, because we have found points where we can do this.