Baez on coach Gutierrez: 'I really love him'

If you catch Sebastian Baez walking around Melbourne Park, you’ll be sure to see his coach, Sebastian Gutierrez, nearby.

Baez and Gutierrez are celebrating their 10th season together after they joined forces in 2015 when Gutierrez was working in the Argentine Tennis Association’s Department of Development. They quickly formed a strong relationship, sharing immense mutual trust.

“He's everything to me,” Baez told ATPTour.com “Like a big brother, father and friend. He helps me be confident to do good things because he's focused all the time on me being a good person. Okay, be a good athlete, but first be a good person. Tennis you play for two or three hours per day, then you are a ‘normal’ person.

“You have to do things. To read, to think about your friends, your family, to help people. I think that's the key and those are values he puts in me. I really love him.”

Gutierrez is proud of the values he has installed in Baez and the respect their share for each other.

"For me, that's a great responsibility and a great motivation," Gutierrez told ATPTour.com in 2022. "He knows that I'm a very honest and direct person and that I want the best for him. I've even prioritised him over myself at certain points in my life. I am proud that Seba is growing up to be a good, well-balanced person, that he knows how to thank not only his coach, but the groundstaff when they work on the court, the racquet stringers…

"When you live like that, I think you live better and happier. Ultimately, tennis will be an important part of your life, but only a part. When you leave tennis you will continue to become a person who still has to find a way through life."

_{^{Sebastian Gutierrez and Sebastian Baez at the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals. Photo: Peter Staples/ATP Tour}}
Off-court Baez and Gutierrez play cards, backgammon and chess, with the World No. 29 admitting it gets competitive. They also enjoy visiting the various cities on Tour, regularly buying Gutierrez’s children souvenirs.

On-court, they have turned Baez into an accomplished hard-court player. The Argentine grew up playing on clay, with his first hard-court experience coming just over two years ago at the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals.

He has since lifted his maiden tour-level title on the surface in Winston-Salem, while this week he is into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time.

“I like hard courts and years ago my coach said, ‘You will be better on hard courts than clay in the future’. I said, ‘Okay’, because I trust everything my coach told me. But then I thought, ‘Really? Hard courts are new for me, I have known clay forever’,” Baez said. “But I think he's going right to be right, fortunately!

“I always try to learn the surface, the players. To look at the little details. I think that is the key to be focused all day on the job. I always like to play on hard court, but I come from Argentina, where it is just clay. I like hard courts because I'm small, I'm fast and I'm strong, so I feel comfortable.”

Baez has faced Top 10 stars Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev at the hard court majors in the past. He will play World No. 4 Jannik Sinner in the third round in Melbourne and is looking to use previous experiences to his benefit.

“I learned a lot from the guys, from Tsitsipas, from Medvedev. I have also played Rublev. I always learn lots. It's better to play against those top guys and not just in practice,” Baez said. “It's more difficult in matches, so those experiences helped me a lot and hopefully it will be the same against Jannik.

“It's my third year on Tour. That experience to know the tournament, the guys and everything is growing. I take that and I just try to be better day by day and to compete with the best players.”

Sinner leads Baez 1-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and has won nine of his past 10 matches, including two victories against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Baez is expecting a tricky test but is aiming to leave his mark when he steps onto Margaret Court Arena at 12:00 p.m. local time on Friday.

“I hope all the people watch my match and say, ‘He's a fighter’. It's not important one moment, one point, one game, one set. I want people to think that he's a fighter every time and he will try to do all he can in that moment.”