Head coach at the Caesarean Tennis Club Pablo Giacopelli has just pulled off such a coup – because he knew someone who knew British No 4 Alex Bogdanovic.’I heard that he was looking for a club in Europe or the UK where he could play top-level club tennis at weekends, so I sent him an e-mail.
I didn’t hear anything for three weeks, then he got in touch and said he had heard of the club’s national men’s club league side and its success, and would like to play for us.
He is good friends with Mike Ouvarov, who signed for us last year and is playing again this season, and Matt Lowe, who is based at Queen’s and is also joining us this season – and he had heard of us through them.
To be honest I’m still a bit surprised he’s signed, but it will be fantastic for the club.’He added that Bogdanovic could have played anywhere and, had he opted to play in the German tennis Bundesliga, for example, he would have been paid four or five thousand pounds per match.’We can’t offer him anything like that, but we do pay him a bit, but not very much.
And we can only pay him because one of the club members, Cameron McPhail, is sponsoring the men’s club league side.’There has been some disquiet among tennis players in Jersey about the make-up of the Caesarean’s men’s team because it has no Jersey players, apart from local resident Giacopelli, in it.But Giaopelli said: ‘What is a Jersey team? When I came here I inherited a national club team that included two French players the club had signed, and which cost the Caesarean £4,000 a season to send away to play – and the team kept on losing because the standard of play in that league was so much higher than any small club could hope to equal.’The other Caesarean team members are Mike Ouvarov, Frenchman Thomas Oger who played for the team a couple of seasons ago and has asked to come back, Jack Baker who is 18 and has just joined the professional tennis circuit, Alex Miotto, Naim Laldji who is ranked about 800 in the world, Lowe, and regulars Paul Hand and Rhys Hanger, along with Giacopelli himself.’Our first match is on 4 April when we play Chandis LTC in north London.
Their No 1 is ranked about 500th in the world and he joined that club to play in the National club league’Paul Hutchins, director of the LTA’s National club leagues and former British Davis Cup player who was in the Island yesterday said: ‘The Caesarean is doing nothing wrong by including overseas players, the only criterion is that they have to be club members.
The LTA has no right to dictate to a club who should represent them.
The NCL is a great event and it is certainly putting Jersey on the tennis map.’And he added: ‘If all the club coaches had the keeness, commitment and passion that Pablo has for his sport, tennis would be very much better off in England.’
