In the immediate aftermath of a bitter defeat on Monday, Ecuador’s Emilio Gomez is quick to turn his focus to a family member on an adjacent grass court at Roehampton.
The son of 1990 Roland-Garros champion Andres Gomez was left to rue missed opportunities in a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 defeat, having served for victory against Gregoire Barrere in the opening round of Qualifying for the Wimbledon Championships.
Mere metres away, his cousin Roberto Quiroz was at risk of suffering the same fate when he failed to serve out an upset of Chinese Taipei’s 13th seed, Jason Jung at 5-4 in the second set.
Fortunately for the left-handed Quiroz, he was able to steady and secured an impressive 7-6(5), 7-6(0) victory.
“I had some high expectations at the beginning of the year and lost a couple of matches like this serving for the match, very close to winning,” Quiroz said. “So I’m really proud at how positive I was.”
All hailing from the South American nation’s second-largest city, Guayaquil, the Gomez family has a storied history in Ecuadorian tennis ranks.
Former world No.6 Nicolas Lapentti and his brother, Davis Cup stalwart Giovanni Lapentti, are also related to this tight-knit family.
“Ecuador is such a small country, especially in tennis, where not that many players practise it,” Quiroz said. “You get really close to each other and that’s really good for us.”
Quiroz and Gomez train at Andres Gomez’s tennis academy whenever they have the chance to return home and they keep regular contact with the former Grand Slam champion.
His experience, having scaled as high as world No.4 in singles and No.1 in doubles, proves invaluable.
“It’s a very high moral support for us to have a guy that’s been at the very top level to experience all of this,” Quiroz said. “It’s very refreshing whenever things are not going well.
“You have this opinion from a guy who competed at the very highest level. It’s just comforting for us.”
Neither Quiroz or Emilio Gomez have contested the main draw of a Grand Slam before.
Currently at No.226, it would mean the world to the 27-year-old Quiroz to make his breakthrough at Roehampton this week.
He next meets American Noah Rubin for a place in the final round of qualifying.
“I struggled this year a lot. I’m trying to get it together again,” he said. “It’s been very tough for me to start the year at No.170, to have chances at every single Challenger and now trying to get back to that level.
“Especially in confidence, I know my tennis is there somewhere, I’m trying to find it. But you know we all dream to pass our very first qualies; everyone here does.”
His disappointment was palpable when delivered the news of his cousin’s defeat.
But Quiroz knew Emilio would be among the happiest to have seen him through to round two.
“We’re super close, we’re like brothers,” Quiroz said. “We’ve spent our entire lives together. Literally our houses are next to each other in Guayaquil.
“We’ve practiced tennis together as long as we can remember and we went to college together. It’s been the same journey pretty much.”
It’s a shared journey that brings great pride to Ecuador’s first family of tennis.
