The woman is mobile, like a feather in the wind, mute in accent and thought
Rigoletto, de Verdi
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–You first –Fernando Barroso (64) tells me.
And he steps aside while holding the door of the RCTB. I look at the gesture and think:
"He can't help it."
Well, his gesture is a courtesy detail, and also a professional vice: Fernando Barroso has spent 32 years and three months repeating this gesture, the gesture of opening the doors of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona for us.
(...)
Now he has retired, and yet the man enters the clubhouse with me and then a range of members interrupt him, ask him questions, congratulate him. They tell him that they miss him, pat him on the back, propose projects for the future.
And he, Fernando Barroso, answers everyone by name: Juan, Manolo, such-and-such a gentleman, such-and-such a lady...
Well, he has seen some grow up, others grow old, he has comforted some and some anger will have broken out, he will not tell me this.
And we ordered a coffee and finally looked for a corner table in the cafeteria, the most corner of all, and there we stock up, notebook and pen, come on, silence, nobody bother us anymore, because until now the recently retired janitor looked like a minister .
(I wonder what memories this will bring back: we went to meet yesterday, the eve of the start of the small painting of the Godó trophy).
I ask him:
–In the 32 years and three months you spent in the booth, did you tune it up?
–¿...?
–Didn't you put a radiator, a rug, a family photo, a pot with a flower...?
–Let's see, the booth is shared with two other colleagues: there are three shifts. If you make it yours, you invade the territory of others. By the way, at first there was no booth.
-And how did you receive the partners?
"Standing, on the stairs." If it was cold, I would wear sheepskin shoes. If it rained, umbrella. What was clear is that a receptionist was needed.
–¿...?
“Before we came, there were security guards who sat on the sidewalk and smoked. They gave a bad image, so the club set up a contest with a psychotechnician, and then I entered.
-Eight hours on your feet...?
–I had good legs, I have run a marathon. In 2008, at the age of 49, I did 3h59m15s. You see: I'm down from four hours! I spent time training in the Can Mercader park, in Cornellà, very close to my house. Antonio Polo trained me. He sometimes ran with Nacho Cáceres and Marco Cepeda. Do you know them?
I know them, I know them.
–And now I still run, and with some members of the RCTB we have a group and we have gone to a half marathon.
You have retired in top form. Envy (healthy) gives.
–I am also a Catalan chess master. In the eighties, in a simul, I beat Jan Timman, the best non-Russian chess player of the time. And he sings opera.
He looks at me and laughs.
And I look at him and laugh.
And I am tempted to ask her for an aria, but I bite my lip and restrain myself: the place is in a low voice, relaxed.
–That's what I really like: chess and opera. Did you know that both disciplines are closely related?
– In what way?
–In the structure: both have an opening, a middle game and an end game. And they present black and white. And the semifusa is made up of 64 strokes, as many squares as the chess board has. And there is harmony. There is harmony in chess!
And now: we are almost at the end of the story and we have hardly talked about tennis.
I watch it. Smiles again.
–Your tennis legend?
–Björn Borg. His hippie style, the ribbon on his forehead, the two-handed backhand, his low heart rate, he never got tired, the guy...
–And Nadal, and Alcaraz?
– I took a picture with Nadal in the locker room. I went to do some business and Nadal was in the shower, with a towel around his waist, and I took advantage of it. Although my friends are Burillo, Berasategui, Corretja, Albert and Carlos Costa, Marc López, Francis Roig, Moyá...
–And admire, admire, whom?
He tells me that he admires his wife, María Ángeles, who works in the women's wardrobe. And to his daughters, Alba and Sara. Sara had been a Spanish ballroom dancing champion.
I suspect that Sara (the whole family) also deserves a Vuelta y Vuelta.
