For the time it has been competing in the elite, it looks like a veteran, but the reality is another. Claudia Fernández, number five in the world, is only 19 years old and is already one of the main references of the female paddle. After a year of learning with Gemma Triay, the Madrid It has settled as one of the best right -wing players of the professional circuitcompeting week after week for lifting trophies with Bea González.
The beginning of the season was not easy for them, but after several tournaments and with the 'pearl' Malaga completely recovered from their injuries, they seem to have found the rhythm that suits them most to start adding victories. Already They managed to lift the trophy in Asunción and it is a matter of time to approach that fight for number one.
Claudia Fernández competing in the Rome tournament.
Before Valladolid P2, played this week, Claudia was one of the great protagonists of an alternative TQ event investors. It is one of the great sponsors of the Madrid, who saw in it an ideal figure to publicize its alternative financing company. There he attended to brand to assess his start of the year and analyze his possibilities for the remainder of the season.
Question: First, how about Bea González?
Answer: Well, the truth is that super good. I think that little by little we are coupling much better, that we are doing a very good team and especially communicating well, which is the most important. It is very easy to carry, because she is a very normal girl. Also with Gaby Rec, with whom we are very happy and forming a great team.
Q: Bea said at the beginning of the year that he was very quiet with the issue of injuries and with the results. How did you take that first phase in which things perhaps did not come out as now?
R: At all times we have been both calm. Obviously we always want more and want to have better results, but we were calm because we were working well and we are surrounded by good professionals to avoid injuries. She may have had more problems in that regard, but we tried not to think so that it was not worse.
Claudia Fernández celebrating the title in Asunción.
Q: Something very curious is happening the last tournaments and it seems that a small 'stone and scissors' has formed between the three best couples. Bea-Claudia wins Gemma-Delfi and lose against Ari-Paula, but these in turn lose against Gemma-Delfi. How is this situation living from within?
R: It is very rare. It is as you say, we won the best more Gemma and Delfi, Delphi and Gemma to Paula and Ari and Paula and Ari to us. It is not known very well what will happen in each tournament, but we have caught each other. It is very rare.
Before I got to the track and felt little side next to Paula and Delfi
Q: Why do you think they find it easier to play against Triay and Brea than against Sánchez and Josemaría?
R: I don't know if it's complicated, easier or more difficult. I wouldn't know how to say it. For example, it is true that Paula bothers me a lot to be left -handed and the effect that puts the ball. I always hide the blow and I don't know what he will do. Delfi, on the other hand, plays like me. So, I know how to read the blows a little more. But I don't know, it's very rare. I wouldn't know how to explain it either.
Q: How are those fights in the crusade with them?
R: It is very difficult. In fact, before I got on the track and felt little next to them. But it is true that little by little I am feeling much better. I feel the confidence of saying 'Ok, I'm here and I can'. That is not something strange to feel like that. And nothing, very happy to have that feeling of trusting that I can play against them and win.
Claudia Fernández during a tournament this season.
Q: Now it seems that many very young players arrive at the circuit, but you were the pioneer of all of your age. How do you see that generation?
R: I see it incredible, really. And it is no longer that group of players and players who are arriving now, but also in minors. There is a level that was not so fast before. It makes me super happy, because that means that the female paddle has a lot of future and hopefully it goes more.
Q: Although it is still 'the wonder girl', it seems that another 'wonderful girl' has come out like Martina Calvo. What would you recommend that you have lived a situation similar to yours?
R: I would tell you that I try to enjoy the experiences that come, that you are not in a hurry, that you do not have to put pressure and that it is surrounded by the good people and a good team. But above all enjoy.
Q: Maybe he already sees the stage of minors a little distant, but it is still very young. At what point is on a personal level?
R: I am in a moment of life where I want to enjoy. I do not want to put pressure on myself, because in the end, if I get pressure, I have a little worse. I think all I have to do is focus is to enjoy and think only on it. I also have a team now where I feel very comfortable, so I think about enjoying it.
Q: Is it not pressed at the results level with objectives?
R: No, because in the end we have not raised them either. So, if any good results arrive, then it arrives. If not, we will continue trying to train and improve for it. We do not think of ranking or results, because in the end it is a pressure that right now I do not have to put ourselves.
I prefer not to congratulate me and not read messages when I win. I don't want something to be uploaded that I don't have to upload
Q: What has this time noticed?
R: In many things, but above all in the confidence of my blows. Because I before, maybe I put 100 balls, but I didn't press any. Now I have the confidence to say: 'I have a good viper, I'm going to throw it away.' Also many other blows, such as the wall descent or the auction, that I am working more now. Little by little I am trying to improve those shots and trusting them more.
Q: What note that you still have to improve?
R: I am very demanding with myself and I usually be very negative. That is something I want to change. I have to congratulate me when I do things well and not look alone in the bad. I do many things well, but I have to tell me more and congratulate me more.
Q: She is a very familiar and quiet player, but how is it to maintain that humility being 19 years old and being one of the best players in the world?
R: I think it has a lot to do with that, the family. They are what they keep with my feet on the ground. I have always said that, when I win a game, I don't like to congratulate me a lot and I prefer not to read messages or anything. I don't want something to be uploaded that I don't have to upload. So, I prefer that they tell me well played at the time, but that the rest of the days do not repeat it more, but it is true that in the end what helps most to be able to take the family to the tournaments and I am very happy for it.
Q: Your social networks are very worked, do you give them much importance or do you prefer to stay out?
R: I am a little out of that, because it entails a lot of time and in the end I think we have to focus on competing and training. It is true that the networks take me and that I like to see it and tell him if I like one thing or another or if I would change something, but I try to be a little apart.
Claudia Fernández, during a game of the Qatar Major de Premier Padel of 2024.
Q: It is still young, but with these years of experience in the circuit, what would you like to change?
R: Well, there is something that is not female, but everything in general and that I would put the gold point again. It could be something that makes the games a little shorter and I don't know if it would change much.
Q: Well, it is true that the other day was one of the four players who starred in the longest set in the history of Premier Padel. I don't know if it has something to do or if they are playing they think about it.
R: When I am inside I do not think about it, but it is true that the golden point would do it a little shorter and it would not be bad.
