Pablo Llamas Ruiz: The Kid Who Idolised Nadal, Saw Himself In Ferrer, And Is Chasing Alcaraz

Spanish tennis today seems to be a bottomless source of emerging talent on the ATP Tour. Among the young guns bidding to find a space in the circuit’s elite is 21-year-old Pablo Llamas Ruiz, who has his sights set on a place in the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held from 28 November – 2 December in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Spaniard Llamas Ruiz is hoping to follow in the footsteps of countrymen Jaume Munar (2018), Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (2019), and Carlos Alcaraz (2021), who have previously played in the tournament that pits the best eight under-21 players in the world against one another.

Like almost every boy born in Spain early in the 21st century, he grew up watching Rafael Nadal.

“When I started playing, everything was Nadal. I remember everyone had his racket, everyone was talking about him”, he says of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

The No. 135 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings hails from a land in which success has become the norm. Spanish tennis boasts a huge haul of titles in recent times, not only thanks to Nadal, but also figures like David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Pablo Carreno Busta, Roberto Bautista Agut and, more recently, Alcaraz.

“Historically, Spain has always had many players in the Top 100, there was even a time when we had four or five players in the Top 20, that’s incredible”, he acknowledges. “Having seen Spanish players like Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Fernando Verdasco, Pablo Carreno on TV… it really helps you and I’ve even shared training sessions with them, at the High Performance Centre I practised with Carreno.”

But if there is one man Llamas Ruiz has modelled himself on, it is former World No. 3 David Ferrer.

“I was at his Academy and at that time he really helped me a lot,” Llamas Ruiz said. “I trained with him occasionally, he was there a lot, but seeing him train or even sharing the court with him taught me so much.”

He was training alongside one of the players which forms part of his first memory of tennis. At just nine years of age, sitting in front of the television, he watched in awe as Ferrer, along with Nadal, Verdasco and Feliciano won Spain’s fifth Davis Cup salad bowl.

“I wasn’t aware of everything, but I could see it was more than tennis, it was bigger, I started to appreciate things”, he explains. “I remember the Davis Cup against Argentina in 2011, with the Nadal – Del Potro match, the atmosphere, how the tie went, each match, that’s when I became more aware of what Spanish tennis was.”

Llamas Ruiz is an heir to a certain way of understanding the game, and of competing. His tennis DNA shares many of the traits of the great players who learned their trade on Spanish soil.

“My game from the baseline, running, grit, high bounces, dictating the game, not giving up on points, those kinds of things”, he says of the influence Spanish tennis has had on his game.

But he has also developed his own hallmarks: “I like to approach the net and volley, I have good hands… you didn’t used to see that so much, it was based more on baseline tennis, long rallies. I remember players like Nadal and Ferrer could play from the baseline for hours, in that regard, I prefer using my hands [touch at the net].”

The enormity of all those names does nothing to frighten Llamas Ruiz, who is clear that he is very much on his own journey.

“It doesn’t put me under pressure that Spanish tennis has been, and is, one of the best countries in tennis, it makes me proud to be part of that and I’ll try to give my best”, he says.

Nor is he worried that a player who is one year younger than him, Carlos Alcaraz, has skyrocketed into the ATP Tour elite.

“Not at all! I’m proud of that, I’m so happy for him”, answers Llamas Ruiz without hesitation of the meteoric rise of his compatriot, peer, and friend.

“Hopefully someday I can play in the same tournaments and on the same courts as him. Everyone, as I always say, has their own path. He’s taken his, and he couldn’t have done any better, and I’ll try and take mine so that someday I can share the court with him and even try to catch him, why not?”, asks Llamas Ruiz.

Bidding to earn himself a place in the Top 100, Llamas Ruiz concludes with an interesting perspective on the legacy that his compatriots have left.

“People don’t appreciate what it is to be in the Top 140, Top 100 or Top 80 in the world. If you’re not in the Top 10 you’re not worth it,” he said. “Spain has always had great players in high positions, so if a Spaniard is at world number 110 it seems like they don’t know how to play tennis.”

In 2023, he has already claimed his first ATP Challenger title in Segovia, Spain and picked up his first ATP Tour win in Lyon [d. Max Purcell]. His next challenge is earning himself a place among the best of his generation at the end of the season in Jeddah.