The article below was written by Joaquin Zilper from Philadelphia, one of the players on the 2025 Signature Summer trip to Spain, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Atlas Tennis was an amazing experience for me to grow as a person more than anything else. My improvement in tennis throughout the trip was inevitable, playing 2 to 4 hours a day and getting elite coaching. But, I wasn’t expecting the growth I was going to gain as an overall person. There are new responsibilities that you gain when you are away from your family living with a group of kids and coaches for three weeks. I became more observant over the trip and became more aware of my surroundings. It was hard not to be curious throughout it all. We were exposed to so many cool, diverse people and places. Each place was different in almost every way than the next.
I had some worries going into the trip but my main one was how I was going to navigate airports having never been in one without my family. There are many items you could lose or forget and you are carrying all of your belongings in a suitcase which can also be lost. Then, I came into JFK to fly to Barcelona and saw some of my fellow players and two of my coaches. I immediately calmed down and realized I was in good hands. The coaches had such a knowledge of how to navigate airports and were so calm in doing so. They were well organized and cared about helping us. When we got to Barcelona, we were all stunned by its beauty. The mountains were very tall and large and the mediterranean sea was so intriguing to us. We all wanted to go in right away! Forget getting to the hotel first! Once we got into the hotel, we were broken up into groups of 2 or 3 for each room. The hotel was very nice, spacious, and had good food for us to eat breakfast and dinner.
The first week in Blanes was exciting! We were situated in our hotel a block away from the beach and were able to take a 5 minute walk to the tennis club. When we got to the club the first day, we were greeted by welcoming smiles from the Spaniards and the beautiful red clay. I was pinching myself, I was so excited to get out on the red clay and when we got on, it didn’t disappoint. It was so much fun! We were lucky enough to play a tournament at the club and we were able to play many high quality and intense matches. In those matches we were able to learn how to play better on clay courts and how to keep cool in the hot sun.
The second week was spent in the Netherlands. We enjoyed playing on the very well kept clay courts that looked like they came out of tennis heaven at a club called Shot in the town of Zeist. The clay looked so healthy from all of the rain it gets and the courts were perfectly swept after every match. The clubs in the Netherlands do a very nice job maintaining their courts. The tournament we played in there was incredibly well organized and filled with many nice people who had good sportsmanship and manners. One of my favorite traditions they have in Dutch tennis is that the winner offers the loser a drink after every match. It was a nice way to get to know your opponent and make tennis a little bit less serious and more enjoyable. We were also able to gain a lot of doubles experience because we played in doubles and mixed doubles at the tournament in Zeist. In the doubles event, we were playing with our fellow teammates which grew our relationships with one another even more. By then, we were all connected and it didn’t feel awkward anymore. Along with the high level of tennis in the Netherlands, we were able to see amazing sites like Utrecht and Amsterdam. The sightseeing day for Amsterdam was filled with many cool experiences such as the canal trip and visiting the museums they have. Utrecht was my favorite town because it had such a charming, old, European look to it. Seeing the difference in culture and way of life from Spain to the Netherlands was evident and very interesting.
Our last week in Switzerland was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains were as high above the clouds and the land was so green. The lakes were as clear as they could be and the air was so fresh. It was a view you could not even begin to comprehend or imagine. When we trained in Verbier, a mountain town, we were taught by some amazing Swiss coaches. They were all so experienced and some had been very important in the development of Swiss tennis which is very successful now. The lake we swam in was an experience I’ve never had before. The lake was so fresh and clean and had such a scenic view. The experience of being in a lake that nice was something I never had before! Along with that, we were able to see the ATP Swiss Open in Gstaad. The event was very nice and had a very beautiful view as well. We were also able to meet Casper Ruud and Jean-Julien Rojer! We talked with Rojer for 20 to 30 minutes and learned a lot from his words of advice he gave us.
I will always be reminded of my experiences I gained on the trip throughout my life and many I had will never be forgotten. The various sites we saw and people we interacted with made us all grow so much as people. The qualities we had to learn to gain to be gracious and courteous where we were guests will remain with us forever. The ability to problem solve and learn how to be good roommates and teammates are qualities we gained as well. The trip was an amazing experience and one to never forget.
–Joaquin Zilper
