Spain’s Munar Surprises Himself By Making Milan

Jaume Munar’s momentum for the 2018 season did not start on 1 January. To gain positive energy in this campaign, the Spaniard built his own springboard long before.

In August 2017, the Majorcan triumphed on the ATP Challenger Tour in Segovia, joining a list of champions that includes names such as Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez. There, without knowing it, he built momentum for his breakout 2018 season.

The Spaniard has made many changes this year, including returning to Mallorca, his home, after living and training in Barcelona for a few years. The Spaniard admits he learned to listen better, thanks to his coaches Tomeu Salva and Pedro Clar.

He understood that he should eat better and that it was important to look after himself. And above all, he realised that tennis was his life. That’s why he decided to train at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, under the tutelage, company and constant support of 33-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion Rafael Nadal.

Watch: Munar Makes His March Towards Milan

This season has been a year that Munar has to be immensely proud of after achieving his two main goals. Munar broke into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings and also qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals.

The 21-year-old started the year at No. 188, dropped to No. 200 in April, before a strong European summer led him to climb as high as No. 87 in the ATP Rankings. He soon reached his career-high No. 79 and is now guaranteed to end the season among the Top 100.

Munar, however, at the start of the season did not consider reaching the Next Gen ATP Finals a realistic goal. Not in the preseason, not in January, when he qualified for his first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open, and not in June, when he was already climbing positions in the ATP Race To Milan.

“I do not know exactly the numbers but I’m far away because the top ones are extremely good,” Munar said in June.

“The players who dominate [the ATP Race To Milan] are members of the Top 50. They are players who have won a lot. It is still not a real goal. My goal is to finish the year in the Top 100 and if we can go further, fantastic.”

Little did Munar know that he was going to overachieve his goal by a great margin. But who is Jaume Munar? He defines himself.

Watch: Munar Qualifies For Milan

“Jaume Munar is a very normal boy from Santanyí, Mallorca. I started playing tennis for a hobby because I had always played football since I was three years old and I stopped because I liked the tennis environment more. Little by little I have been growing, and today I think I can say that I am a professional tennis player and that I dedicate myself exclusively to it. For me, it is a privilege to be where I am,” he said.

“Beyond tennis, I am a person who likes to give everything. If you have to play from one to 10, always give 10. Give your 100 per cent. If it’s time to study until 10 p.m., then study… If you have to work until five in the morning, then you do it. It’s something that I’ve been taught at home since childhood. That you have to give everything you have in what you like and especially when it’s your job. In the end, it is hardly an effort for me to give that extra because for me it is normal.”

Giving 100 per cent was rewarded when he qualified for Roland Garros, and above all, when he beat 2013 finalist David Ferrer in the first round in an intense five-set thriller. Although he was beaten in the second round by Novak Djokovic, Munar drew many lessons from his time in Paris.

Proof of this were the two consecutive ATP Challengers titles in Prostejov and Caltanissetta. The European summer did not stop there. In July, Munar reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Kitzbühel, where he lost to the eventual champion Martin Klizan.

Munar, nominated in the “Newcomer Of The Year” category in the ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon, continues to make progress. He will go for more in Milan.