Exactly one year ago Nicola Kuhn celebrated his first title on the ATP-Challenger-Tour at the Sparkassen Open in Braunschweig. This weekend, the 18-year-old Spaniard has returned to the scene of his greatest triumph to date.
However, the signs were not good, as Kuhn had kinked during a match at the Italian ATP-Challenger in Barletta in April, stepped into a hole and thus broke his foot. It’s been out for weeks.
“That wasn’t an easy time,” Kuhn said about his injury break. “On the first day I got a cast, but on the second day I went to the gym. “I sat down on a big fitness ball and played forehand and backhand from there.” Memories of Thomas Muster come back.
14 days ago in Milan the teenager finally returned to the tour, which can all be described relatively quickly for the severity of the injury.
In Braunschweig, however, the lack of playing practice was still noticeable to him. In the singles round, I played Yannick Hanfmann from Germany. In the doubles, however, at the side of the Norwegian junior player Casper Ruud, it went all the way to the semi-finals.
Kuhn’s new coach Iván Navarro, former world number 67, was present at the 127,000 Euro sand court tournament. The 36-year-old Spaniard was famous for his serve and volley strategy, which in the early 2000s – just like today – looked like a relic from another time.
“I had known Iván for a long time without having been in direct contact with him. When things didn’t go so well with my previous team and motivation on both sides waned, my manager made a connection to him,” Kuhn describes the beginning of the collaboration. “Fortunately, he was also immediately interested in a partnership. The whole thing went very fast, but the first week was already top. You can tell he knows what he’s talking about. That’s a whole different level. “The whole team is working really well now.”
Navarro’s influence was also immediately felt in Braunschweig.
“We’ve already changed the way I play,” Kuhn revealed. “Of course we don’t throw everything upside down but we try to do more on the net now. Immediately take the first opportunity to move forward. We also worked on the serve. The first service is really good at the moment. I hope some good bombs come out in the future.”
Nevertheless, not only the powerful elements should be in focus, but also to give the game more variation is an aim of the new cooperation. “Federer is so good because no opponent knows what to expect at the next rally,” Kuhn said. “The young people play with much fewer ideas and don’t really think about what might throw the other person off course. “Of course they can play good tennis, but a lot of them just go for the ball.”
He reveals that the teenager is also concerned with tactics on the pitch with an article by the former number 1 Marat Safin. “He had said that the young players didn’t come up because the game was always the same. “The cracks at the top would just play smarter.” The head should therefore play an even more decisive role on the pitch in order to be able to develop more game ideas.
Whether the German fans can hope that the world’s current number 230 will once again run for black-red-gold remains uncertain.
“That’s a topic we can talk about for many hours,” says Kuhn, who competed for Germany until 2015. Born in Innsbruck, he grew up mostly in Ludwigshafen, but spent a lot of time in Alicante, where his parents own a holiday home. Two years ago, the decision was made to go to Spain.
“I’ll leave all the doors open, though.” The contact to the German Tennis Federation is still given in any case. His manager is in regular contact with DTB coach Dirk Dier.
As a short-term goal it is now necessary to collect play practice again. The ATP-Challenger in Scheveningen, Tampere and Sopot are scheduled for the next weeks.
“I still have my sights set on the top 100 this year,” Kuhn sets out the route.
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