For decades, Argentine tennis had an unwritten rule for identifying promising young players: the earlier they won titles, the higher the expectations for their future. Winning in the children’s and junior categories was the main sign that a player could go far. 

That model, however, is being reevaluated

The Argentine Tennis Association (AAT) is now trying to shift its outlook. The idea is not to focus on who is winning today but on what kind of player they might become five, eight, or ten years from now.

This new perspective is one of the goals of the Argentine Technical Department (in Spanish, DeTA), launched by the AAT this year. The program aims to support players’ development from an early age and evaluate factors that go far beyond the outcome of a match or tournament.

One of the program’s first events took place at the National High-Performance Sports Center (CeNARD) in Buenos Aires, where 16 under-10 and first-year under-12 boys and girls participated in a national transition camp. 

They arrived from eight provinces and Buenos Aires City,........

© Buenos Aires Herald