“Resilient, fearless and had fun”: Coach Cobus Van Wyk on Aryan Shah`s breakthrough run
Aryan Shah defeated Oliver Crawford by a scoreline of 7-6 6-4 to move into the Segovia Challenger semis. Aryan trains at the Altevol Sports Academy in Ahmedabad under Coach Swapnil Desai and they have a close collaboration with Alexander Waske Tennis University. Coach Cobus Van Wyn has been working with Aryan Shah over the past 3 weeks and shared his thoughts with Indian Tennis Daily on the big win today.
Prateek Chachhra: Thoughts
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: Congratulations to Coach Swapnil Desai. He’s from India, he lives in India. He works at the Altevol Sports Academy, which has a collaboration with the Alexander Waske Tennis University in Germany. I just wanted to say and mention congratulations to him. He’s known Aryan and worked with Aryan for a long time.
Cobus, congratulations on the amazing win. You guys must be super proud, especially when the head-to-head was 0-4, and it’s now 1-4. How does it feel?
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: Good. I’m very proud of Aryan. He was resilient, fearless, and he had fun. You could see he had fun and competed every single point. Everyone was just very proud. Alex Waske, Bastian Suwanprateep, everyone has sent me messages already. We’re just stoked and enjoying the moment, and we’ll bounce back next.
Prateek Chachhra: Beautiful. Time to open a champagne, or since we’re in Spain, a Cava! So, when did you first start working with Aryan, and what were your impressions?
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: The first time I worked with Aryan was in December when he came to Europe for the pre-season part of our program, which is fantastic. He worked very, very hard, and we went on the road three weeks ago. We did the M25 Kassel in Germany, and the Pozoblanco Challenger last week, and then this week here. We’ve just been working hard. Aryan’s a fantastic young man. I think his mom and dad raised him very, very well, with good morals and good discipline. It’s a joy to work with him, and we’re all very proud of him.
Prateek Chachhra: Yes, that sounds amazing. And yeah, I mean, the potential is immense. It’s exciting. So, what have been your focus areas working with him, especially coming into this game, obviously into this match?
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: I mean, I don’t know what happened in the past. We focused on the present because he’s been playing good tennis. So the idea was to control your own energy, have self-belief, go and enjoy, and then believe in what you’ve worked on and what everyone has been helping Aryan with. Trust that and then go forward. He did it, so that was a great win. Very proud of him.
Prateek Chachhra: Yeah, yeah. Like seeing the match, especially, there were two weapons that I was watching, and I was like, super, like, “Wow!” It was such a great… one of them was the pattern down the line, and the other one was the serve. How do you feel it has improved, and what changes have you noticed yourself in Aryan?
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: I mean, just for him, just being alert, finding the intensity every single point. And whenever he feels nervous, just accepting that “I’m nervous,” lifting up the intensity and energy, and it takes that away, some of those shots. It’s nice to watch. And that was the first thing he mentioned, focusing on my backhand. So it was very nice.
Prateek Chachhra: And my final question for you would be, as Aryan transitions completely to the Challenger Tour now, any aspects that you’re working on in his game to make it fit for this level?
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: Yes. I mean, the serve has been a fantastic work in progress. He’s been working hard. Big credit also to Alex and Basti, who’ve been spending a lot of time with him on the serve. His fitness coach, Albert, has been doing really, really well. I mean, he’s been playing a lot of matches, so physically he’s been holding up very, very well. And the forehand is growing in confidence. And, yeah, the movement. I think it’s deceiving how well Aryan can move. So, just enhancing that would be great. But as I tell Aryan, instead of having expectations, and everyone having expectations, just have a standard and do what you do best. The rest will come.
Prateek Chachhra: Beautiful. Yeah, the movement was amazing. It was like watching an Indian Alex de Minaur. Well, thank you so much, Cobus, for this interview and best of luck for the semi-final and the rest of the tournament.
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: Thank you very much.
Prateek Chachhra: I mean, talking to you, I can imagine there are greater days ahead for Aryan Shah. We’re really excited to see the potential.
Coach Cobus Van Wyk: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.
