Welcome to the first instalment of Nicolas Mejia’s blog. Nico brought down the curtain on his junior career in 2018 and won two titles during his first full year as a professional. He also made his Davis Cup debut for Colombia against Argentina in 2018. He is currently training at the Rafa Nadal Academy and will be writing regular pieces for the ITF, providing insight into his tennis journey. Follow his progress here.

My love for tennis began when I was at school. After lessons, I’d go to watch my sister Gabriela, who played on the ITF World Tennis Tour, train with Equipo Colsanitas in Bogota and I’d pick up the balls for her and her teammates.

There were some big players there, the likes of Santiago Giraldo, Juan Sebastian Cabal, Robert Farah, Alejandro Falla and Alejandro Gonzalez and I’d end up hitting with my sister and these guys most afternoons.

I would then go and serve a basket of balls with my dad at the weekends, while I started playing tournaments all over Colombia after the family moved to Cali when I was eight.

Over the next few years, however, I got more and more serious about tennis and decided to move to Miami. I was only 12 when I left my parents behind for the US, where I effectively grew up alongside my sister and coach Juan Mateus.

While it was extremely exciting and felt like I was on vacation every day, I did miss my family but when you’re young you just go with the flow and I felt it was something I needed to do to chase my dreams.

The biggest factor in swapping home for the US was that I could do what I love day in, day out and compete at a really high level every weekend, and I was regularly battling guys who were way older than me.

This built a very competitive spirit within me which characterises me today, while my time in the United States probably also explains why I am not a typical South American player and why my game style is so different to those who have grown up there.

I moved to Bradenton in Florida a couple of years ago which is where I was as I completed my junior career in 2018 and began life as a professional. There is a long way to go but brick by brick we are building.

The next stage sees me in Mallorca at the Rafa Nadal Academy, where I have been for just over a month. I am really happy here; I have never had a European base and it seemed an ideal opportunity to try something new.

I’ve played two tournaments here in the last few weeks and, while I wish I could have had better results, it was important as I realised an ankle injury which I had towards the end of last year has fully recovered. I have the whole year ahead of me and I feel fit and healthy.

While here I’ve had the chance to train with Rafa, which has been unbelievable and so special as he is my idol. I trained with him once before at the Miami Open five years ago and, unbelievably, he remembered me from there. I didn’t think he would have, but he did.

I’ve been lucky. I have a very good bond with Rafa and his uncle Toni, who is overseeing my training group. Rafa is extremely nice and caring with everyone at the academy and always tries to help us in different ways.

He has been telling me how important it is to have big intensity but also to enjoy myself on court, while we have spoken about tactics and done some work on my strokes.

In the last four weeks or so I have worked on things which I have never worked on before. The intensity is incredible and the way they are teaching me how to move, especially in terms of using my whole body when hitting the ball, is amazing.

I am seeing and feeling improvement every day and I’m starting to be more aware of how important it is to move my legs correctly at different points of the court and how crucial the movement of my legs is. Being aware of this has made such a big difference and, to be honest, I am completely stunned by it.

I really appreciate being here and I am getting better and better and that needs to happen if I am going to get to the level I want to, which brings me to my aims and ambitions for 2021.

The most basic thing for me is to stay healthy and play as many tournaments as possible as I only played a handful during 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and various restrictions.

I don’t like to put myself under rankings pressure or be too strict on myself. I am a believer that the rewards will come as a result of the day-to-day work and, in that way, I know that my ranking will go up.

That said, I would like to progress and be around the No. 260-280 mark or have a good enough ranking to be able to play Challenger events on a consistent basis. Having that rankings base is so important and it makes it easier to make a breakthrough.

I honestly feel that I’m in really good shape for the season and keen to see how a prolonged period here at Rafa’s academy continues to benefit me. I’m looking forward to what 2021 brings.