Tommy Robredo

This picture was taken by my friends in Olot so I would not forget them while I am on tour. Santi is in the middle. This picture is hanging from my office at home in Sant cugat Santi Silvas was born the 5/2/1974 and left us the 16/2/2008 at the age of 34.

Santi´s family was one of the first families we met when my family moved to Olot when I was a kid. We got on very well and our true friendship is still alive and it will remain forever.

Since then, we have been always in touch. Every 26th of December ( St. Esteve´s day ) we gather together, but this last Christmas we have not been able to do so because Santi was in hospital.
We always had great times together, played jokes, and above all, there was two bets between him and myself he always reminded me about. We had to play a tennis match using both wheelchairs, and the other one, was to find out who ate the most amount of prawns, btu there I always won by far!

At the age of 6 I use to train with him, he used to be very upset when he loose against me or other members of the group...

Off court he was like my body guard, he would be very proud of me and always defended me against critics and similars, he was always there.He has always done that, even in my professional years. There is no shortage of anecdotes ie calling a journalist who had not treated me well or call the TV in order to get more attention to my matches.
He adored me and my family and he became one of us.

At the age of 17 he had a bike accident and remained since then in a wheelchair.
With no wast of time, he used tennis to recover both mentally and phisically. He was passionate about it, no matter who played, he would follow me everywhere I´d go.

He worked as my father´s assistant at the Club Natació Olot educating kids and when he could he would play some wheelchair tennis tournaments around Spain and France, where he would meet a lot of people like him who immediately falled in love with Santi.
To know all these people allowed him to eventually become more involved and passionate about wheelchair tennis becoming tournament director at an S1 Barcelona, the Hispanish Open, and then orgnaising several more, like S3 at the Club de Tenis Figueres, the Club Tenis d´Aro and three more tournaments in particular at the Club Natació d´Olot , from which I keep great memories back in 1996 and 1997.
The last tournament in which he could work was in 2002.

He had always in mind to create an S2 tournament in Olot. That was his goal and focus for a long time.

During 2007 we discussed a few times with the ITF but his health was not good enough to in order to embark in such project, so we decided to leave it until he got better. This was a project that I wanted to get involved so I could help him to achieve his wish and help a lot of his friends that I met because of him.

Last time I could see Santi was in Christmas day at the Sant Jaume hospital in Olot. My dad told me he was not feeling well and it seemed at times that he would say goodbye to people when they visited him. I remember his words: You win, ´cause if you win I will be very happy, here at hospital is the only thing that will make me happy. "Fight on court to win, because I am fighting to survive and my game is far more dificult than yours”. I will never forget his words.

I know you will not be at the St. Esteve meal anymore, and we will ot be able to bet who wins at a wheelchair tennis match, nor who will eat more prawns.
I also know I will not receive more supportive e-mails when I lose on first rounds, but, I want you to know that all of us who knew you will never forget you.

From today I will put all my efforts so that in 2009 this tournament you wanted so much to be hosted in Olot becomes a reality, so that we don´t forget about the things you fighted so much for.

Big hug wherever you are.