Meet the ITF World Tennis Tour Player Panel: Juan Pablo Paz

Last month, the ITF announced the players elected to the newly-created ITF World Tennis Tour Player Panel. The members will sit on the Panel until the end of the 2021 season and for two-year terms thereafter.

We spoke to all the players on both the men's tennis and women's tennis panels, to find out about their tennis careers to date and their hopes for what they can achieve during their time as panel members. On the men's tennis panel, we have already heard from Aldin Setkic, Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha, Francesco Vilardo, Jose Bendeck and Ti Chen.

Today we hear from Juan Pablo Paz, a 25-year-old player from Argentina. Since making his professional debut in 2010, Paz has won six singles and 10 doubles titles at ITF World Tennis Tour-level. He has reached career-best ATP rankings of No. 284 in singles and No. 327 in doubles. Here's what he had to say...

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I think I’m halfway through my career and the best is still to come. I started playing tennis at a very age. My dad is a tennis coach and I played with a tennis racket and ball, just for fun, when I was very little. I started training when I was seven, with a group of children trained by my dad. I played junior tournaments briefly and then started playing Futures, Challengers and the qualifiers at ATP 250 events when my ranking was good enough. 

I couldn’t play many junior tournaments because I didn’t have the money to pay all the costs, so from the age of 16, I played in Argentina and then Futures. The transition between the juniors circuit, where you just compete against each other, and the Professional tournaments, where you play for the ranking points and the money to carry on, was a shock.

I have a few good moments in my career. At the age of 14, I was part of the winning Argentinean team in South America. To represent my country is thrilling and motivates me a lot. It was an unforgettable moment. Another great moment was reaching my best ATP ranking of No. 284 in 2017.

In the last few years, tennis has experienced changes and developed in different directions – sometimes in ways that I disagree with. When I found out about the ITF Player Panel, I put my name forward and I will do my best to represent my colleagues.

I love tennis and I believe this sport is without doubt one of the best sports in the world. I believe that it needs to improve, and I hope the Player Panel generates a positive impact on it.

Communication among the main tennis organizations and tennis players in, without any doubt, very important. I think there are two realities and points of view that are needed to reach a consensus. On one side, there is the reality of players and on the other, the management in charge of the organisations.

We travel and compete every week and see first hand the impact of decisions taken by the tennis organisations. I think that improving communication will benefit everyone.