Kanoa Igarashi knows what it takes to compete at the highest level of sport, winning a silver medal in surfing at the Tokyo Olympics. But that hasn’t stopped the 28-year-old from being impressed by what he saw at the Nitto ATP Finals.
“Tennis has always been that sport where it is the most physically and mentally the most difficult sport in the world,” Igarashi told ATPTour.com. “As an athlete, I look at a lot of tennis players as inspiration and get a lot of ideas from them. But it was my first experience when I took part in a tournament in Paris last week, and then suddenly I’m here in Turin, so it’s been a crazy few weeks in the little tennis part of my brain.”
Based in Lisbon, Igarashi has quickly become a big fan of tennis. After attending the Rolex Paris Masters and the Nitto ATP Finals as a content creator for the ATP, the Japanese star has gotten to know some of the sport’s best players.
“It’s crazy. Just building a relationship with some of these guys and having a good conversation with some of these athletes, it really made me realize that the similarities between sports are crazy,” Igarashi said. “Ultimately, we try to be the best, no matter what you play: football, basketball, tennis or my sport, surfing. There are so many different ways to play your sport, but the goal is the same.”
Igarashi enjoyed exchanging ideas about preparing for matches and training, both on and off the playing field.
“I went home every day to take notes from some of the guys. [They] told me and said, “Hey, have you ever trained like this or have you ever done this kind of breathing exercise? Have you ever looked at your sport this way?” Igarashi said.[There are] different perspective, different angles, and I felt like I grew a lot as an athlete and in my own sport. So to speak, some of the past few weeks, things I’m taking with me for my upcoming season.”
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One of the conversations that stood out was with Felix Auger-Aliassime, who qualified for Turin in the last week of the season. They talked about breathing and dealing with pressure.
“Tennis is about resetting after every point, whether you win or lose, and being fresh for the next point. The same goes for surfing. We catch waves, and the idea is to reset after each wave and make sure you’re physically and mentally reset when you start the next ride,” Igarashi said. “We talked about some breathing stuff and shared techniques and the ways we were dealing with it in our own way.
“We pushed each other a bit and it was a good conversation. He is very philosophical. So am I. Especially with the sport I am in, you really have to be that way. So it was cool.”
The ATP and TikTok have officially launched the Tennis Creator Network, a global creator initiative that debuted this week at the Nitto ATP Finals. Igarashi is a member of the Tennis Creator Network, which represented Indian Wells in Turin. Read more about the groundbreaking initiative here.
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