Axel Geller devoted his life to study and sport and ended up deciding on books. Photo: Instagram.
I said Clarione when he was not yet 20: “I’m too young to give up my whole life for tennis.” In that conversation with this newspaper, Axel Geller He had already been Wimbledon junior doubles champion and was about to play the singles final, against which he would lose Alexander Davidovich.
Two months later, he would be runner-up US Open but I would also like to insert the Stanford University and would devote his time to tennis only at the university level. Just a little bit of the circuit. He wanted to be a tennis player, but in his own way: the priority was in his university career.
While studying in Palo Alto, California, he moved away from the circuit. he became number one in the junior category according to the International Tennis Federation (ITF). He was the first Argentine to join him later Mariano Zabaleta taken in 1995.
“That recognition made me super happy and filled me with pride. When the year started I knew I had the ability to have a good season, but I never imagined finishing the year as number 1,” he said in another interview. Clarione.
With a handful of tournaments, he was 539 in the ATP rankings. The consensus was clear: Geller was the promise of local tennis.
Wimbledon junior final: that day Alejandro Davidovich won the final against Axel Geller. photo by Reuters
Change of life
Five years after that Wimbledon final, Geller just made another announcement. Definitive. Already a graduate in Economics and Finance with a Masters in Management, Science & Engineering from Stanford, his future will not lie in the circuits, but in a New York office in the Citibank building.
He will leave California, where he studied and worked at the same bank headquarters as a summer analyst. It was three months, the last of his career, and those that ended up confirming his retirement from the world of professional tennis.
The emotion of Axel Geller with his family at the graduation ceremony. Photo: Instagram.
“It was a decision that I elaborated for a long time and I am happy to face a new chapter in my life. The last photo is after winning the last game, a nice reminder of the passion with which I approached the sport for so many. years, and all the teachings I carry with me for whatever happens “, he wrote on Instagram, along with some photos of his sporting career, and thanking all the friends that tennis has given him.
It’s a mature decision, at 23. Yes, Geller has just crossed the 20 barrier and has already retired from tennis with a challenge in New York: his workspace will be focused as investment analyst for technology companies.
Geller was born in Pilar in 1999 and in 2003, at the age of four, he picked up a racket for the first time at the Mayling Country Club, in that neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He studied at the San Andrés Institute in Olivos and at the age of 14 he hit tennis for the first time: he champion of the Orange Bowl, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the junior category. it had been imposed before Alex de Minaur for 6-7 (2) 7-5 and 6-2.
Axel Geller, in one of the Stanford University classrooms, where he also played tennis. Photo: Instagram.
His departure from his career path was a fact. It was consumed, even if after the graduation goal some speculated the possibility that Geller would return to tennis for a while, before entering the job market, as an economist.
His last doubles final was on 3 August 2019, on the hard courts of the Ursula Beck Pro Tennis Classic: he won it, together with the Bolivian Juan Carlos Manuel Aguilar, 6-1 and 6-3 against the Argentine duo of Alan Kohen and Santiago Rodriguez Taverna.
Geller’s future no longer has clay, racquets, tours and nets. The graphs Look, they have to do with other rankings: movements of money, investments and other financial variables.
Source: Clarin
