NEW YORK – The birth of his second child meant a demanding mental challenge for Nicolás Jarry in the middle of the North American swing, which ended this Thursday with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 loss to Australia’s Álex De Miñaur in the third round of the US Open.
“The team was trying to encourage me, because I’ve been through hard moments. It is normal that the head does not work in the best way given all the previous effort, to everything I lived. It may have had something to do with today,” he told the media.
Jarry withdrew in the second round of Cincinnati because his wife Laura was about to give birth. He traveled urgently to the Chilean capital, and a few days after the birth of Santiago, younger brother of the famous Juanito, he returned to the United States to concentrate on the US Open.
“I was expecting something very different. I knew what I was facing. I was so eager that I sabotaged myself. I lost my focus because of the great motivation I had. I completely lost it because I focused on the result, which usually brings negative consequences. That’s where you can see the mental difficulty of this sport”, added the champion of the ATP 250 in Santiago and Geneva in 2023.
He will take a direct flight to Chile, where he will join his family before traveling to Bologna. In Italy, he will be the number one singles player of the only Latin American team that will play in the group stage of the Davis Cup finals. The Chileans, captained by Nicolás Massú, will play in Group A against Sweden, the locals and Canada, in that chronological order between September 12th and 17th.
All of the Chileans’ rivals will suffer important absences. Italy’s Matteo Berretini suffered a badly sprained ankle that forced him to withdraw in the second round of the US Open, and the seriousness of his fall indicates that he will not be in the competition; Sweden lost its number one Mikael Ymer to a suspension in accordance with anti-doping rules for having skipped three tests (the Swedish-Ethiopian later opted to retire from tennis); while the Canadians will try to defend their title without Felix Aliassime and Milos Raonic. Denis Shapovalov is a question mark after missing the New York Grand Slam with a knee injury.
“I’ll let this anger pass and then think about Davis. It’s a competition where there are always surprises, anything can happen,” said the Chilean, who climed just outside the top 20 thanks to his campaign in New York: “I have many opportunities to continue growing. I’m going to Beijing for the first time, I haven’t been to Paris Bercy for a long time. Considering how I was coming, I made the most of this US Open, I beat the players I had to beat. It has been a very good year”.
