Prado Angelo: No. 1 spot, billionaire selfie and tabasco for breakfast
Bolivia’s Juan Carlos Prado Angelo has expressed his pride at today being installed as top-ranked boy on the planet and assuming No. 1 spot in the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors rankings.
The 18-year-old, who last month reached the boys’ singles final at Roland Garros, is the first player – boy or girl – from his nation to achieve the feat since combined rankings were introduced in 2004. In short, Prado Angelo has secured a little piece of history.
“I am very happy with this achievement,” Prado Angelo, a devout chess fan, tells itftennis.com. “It’s been a very good year for me. I haven’t played a lot of junior tournaments, but I have done well in the ones I have played. I am very happy and very proud of this achievement.
“It is a goal for every junior player to get to No. 1, but we did not talk about getting there, more reaching the Top 10, but now it has happened I am very pleased to have reached the top and be the first player from Bolivia to do so.”
It was not to be for Prado Angelo this week as he crashed out of the Junior Championships, Wimbledon in the first round after succumbing to home favourite Henry Searle, a player with far great experience of playing on grass.
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He does, however, remain in the doubles after he and Brazil’s Joao Fonseca teamed up to great effect to dispatch Great Britain’s Henry Jefferson and Charlie Robertson 6-2 6-4 as the intrepid duo sealed a place in round two.
“I played here last year with Joao; we match very well and I think we play well together,” said Prado Angelo, who in 2022 received a Grand Slam Player Grant, financed by the Grand Slam Player Development Programme, to assist with his ongoing development.
“We’re playing very well and I think we can beat anyone if we play to the best of our ability. We can do great things.
“In singles, I didn’t play badly here and don't feel too bad about losing. I had some bad luck with the draw and played a very good guy in Henry who is much more used to playing on grass. In the end, it was just little details.”
Incidentally, immediately after his doubles victory Prado Angelo, who cannot get enough spicy food and insists on putting tabasco on scrambled eggs for breakfast, was asked for a selfie by Bolivian technology entrepreneur Marcelo Claure.
Clearly, that is the kind of attention that getting to No. 1 in the junior world rankings attracts.
A full list of results from the 2023 Junior Championships, Wimbledon is available here.