The boy with the wooden spoon hits Cilic

Czech teenager Jonas Forejtek made his fairytale debut on Sofia’s ATP tour and quickly defeated Marin Cilic. His secret of success: he refined his technique with a very special exercise.

It was only thanks to a wild card that the Czech had the opportunity to compete in the starting lap with the former world number 3 in Sofia. A local player would actually have received this honor, but a positive crown test helped Forejtek make an unexpected debut.

And the world number 399 did a great job and finished the number 8 of the Croatian seed in just 66 minutes with 6: 3 and 6: 2. For the first time in 15 years, the 32-year-old did not reach the quarterfinals finals this season. Sad result for the winner of the US Open 2014, who has now dropped to 43rd place in the world rankings.

The world looks very different with his 19-year-old opponent. In 2019 the former world number 1 won the US Open Juniors and has now given a taste of his skills. Good serve and powerful – and above all precise – shots from both sides. It owes this, among other things, to a special training device – a large wooden spoon.

In a video that quickly went viral on social media, the then 12-year-old can be seen hitting balls with the unusual wooden bat. This is despite the fact that, with a diameter of only twelve centimeters, the face of the wooden spoon is almost twice the size of a tennis ball, as “tennismagazin” explains.

However, the boy from Pilsen hits balls perfectly in the “sweet spot”. The inventor of the wooden spoon is Jiri Bartos, Forejtek’s coach since childhood. The device, called “TennisPointer”, was intended to teach his protege to hit the ball correctly. With the help of a carpenter friend, the first prototype was made and rapid progress was made.

“I’ve been training Jonas for seven years and he was very good with the wooden spoon. We usually use it for ten minutes in the warm-up phase of a training session, “says Bartos. The” TennisPointer “is now also available in various sizes for around 70 euros.

The “wooden spoon boy” will meet another renowned opponent in Sofia in the round of 16 with Richard Gasquet. But even there the talented Czech will definitely shine with technically sparkling clean bangs. That’s why he rarely collects the “TennisPointer”.