ATP Tour

Olympic medalist Igarashi loved Nitto ATP Finals: 'I went home every day taking notes'

Kanoa Igarashi knows what it takes to compete at the highest level of sport, winning a silver medal in surfing at the Tokyo Olympics. But that has not stopped the 28-year-old from being impressed by what he saw at the Nitto ATP Finals.

“Tennis has always been that sport where it's the most physical and mentally the most difficult sport in the world,” Igarashi told ATPTour.com. “As a sportsperson, I look at a lot of tennis players as inspiration, and I draw a lot of ideas from them. But it was my first experience coming into a tournament last week in Paris, and then all of a sudden, I'm here in Turin, so it was a crazy few weeks in the little tennis part of my brain.” 

Based in Lisbon, Igarashi has quickly become a big fan of tennis. After attending the Rolex Paris Masters and the Nitto ATP Finals as a content creator for the ATP, the Japanese star has gotten to know some of the sport’s best players.

“It’s crazy. Just building a relationship with some of these guys and having a good conversation with some of these athletes, it's really made me realise that it's crazy the similarities between sports,” Igarashi said., “At the end of the day, we're trying to become the best no matter what you're playing: soccer, basketball, tennis, or my sport, surfing. There's so many different ways to do your sport, but the goal is the same.”

Igarashi has enjoyed exchanging ideas about preparation for competition as well as training, both on and off the field of play.

“I went home every day, taking notes off of some of the guys. [They] told me and said, ‘Hey, have you ever trained like this or have you ever done this kind of breathing exercises? Have you ever looked at your sport in this way?’” Igarashi said. “[There are] different perspective, different angles, and I felt like I grew a lot as an athlete and in my own sport. So to say, some of these last few weeks, things that I'll take with me for my upcoming season.”

 

 

 

 

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One of the conversations that stood out was with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who qualified for Turin during the last week of the season. They spoke about breathing and dealing with pressure. 

“Tennis is about resetting after each point, whether you win or lose, and being fresh for the next point. Same with surfing. We catch waves, and you're supposed to reset after each wave and make sure that you're physically and mentally reset going into the next ride,” Igarashi said. “We were talking about some breathing stuff and were sharing techniques and the ways we dealt with in our own way.

“We picked each other's brains a little bit, and it was a good conversation. He's very philosophical. I am too. Especially with the sport that I'm in, you really have to be. So it was cool.” 

The ATP and TikTok have officially launched the Tennis Creator Network, a global creator initiative that debuted this week at the Nitto ATP Finals. Igarashi is a member of the Tennis Creator Network, who was representing Indian Wells in Turin. Learn more about the pioneering initiative here.