This past week I had the good fortune to meet a couple of tennis figures who had some interesting encounters with Marcelo Rios during his playing career.
Neno Cacic, a former player at Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy said he saw an incident where Rios was training on a practice court and did not want to leave, he wanted to keep training and playing. The next player on the court was Sandra Cacic, a former WTA top 40 player. There was an argument and then a solution was negotiated… Rios would play Cacic in a game to 21 without serves and then if Cacic won, Rios would have to exit the court. Well, shockingly, Cacic defeated the then ATP World no. 1 Rios by two or three points, despite Rios having the advantage of being warmed up. Still, Rios broke his promise and would not get off the court for Cacic. Until Nick Bollettieri himself came and told Rios to get off the court. Cacic won one WTA singles title in 1996 in New Zealand and reached no. 39 in the world in 1994.
Roberto Castillo said he was at a Costat circuit tournament in South American where he saw a 12 year old Marcelo Rios get on top of a table in a players area, and announce to everyone, “I will be no. 1 in the world some day.” Of course, about a decade later, Rios became world no. 1 when he defeated Andre Agassi in three straight sets at the 1998 Miami Open final at age 22.
Rios started dating his future (first) wife at NBTA when she was 14, he was 23.
Roberto Castillo was watching Marcelo Rios practice at the Miami Open one year when the Chilean was at his best. Then a former six-time Grand Slam champion and World no. 1 Stefan Edberg approached the court and observed the pony-tailed genius sparring with Tommy Haas. Edberg said, according to Castillo, “That’s the best tennis player I’ve ever seen.”
And one more from George Dieffenbach: “Great writing and story about Rios. I have one funny Rios story. I was in Scottsdale, Arizona on spring break with the Pitt Women’s team I coached. They had a big ATP and WTA event there, and we were walking through the practice area. Rios had just finished. One of my pretty players had a program, and I encouraged her to approach Rios and ask for an autograph. She smiled as she approached him, asked for one, and he happily gave her one. I waited right behind her, and thought I would do the same and get one from him for one of my kids. When I asked him, he looked at me like I was from outer space and said no. To this day I still laugh about it.”
Chile · Marcelo Rios · Nike · Yonex
