Oscar Hilado, CEO of tennis patron Union Cement Corporation (UCC) and Fernandez’ godfather, told The STAR yesterday that Fernandez has devoted her time for her education in Los Angeles, California in the United States hoping to make up for the lost time she spent mostly in tennis.
"By the way I looked at her when we met in LA recently. It appears that there is little chance of her getting back to tennis," said Hilado, who has been one of the sport’s staunchest supporters.
"She told me she is studying hard to make up for lost time. You see, she started to play full-time when she was still 14 years old so you can imagine the things she gave up when she was playing tennis for that time," he added.
Hilado, however, said there is still a chance that Fernandez, whose career was highlighted with a gold medal performance in the 1999 Brunei SEAG, might yet change her mind and do a Jennifer Capriati and a Lisa Raymond. Both Americans retired for a while and then returned to active play.
"You’ll never know, Maricris might do a Capriati and a Raymond. Capriati, as we all know, is the current No. 1 in women’s tennis while Raymond is a world class athlete herself," said Hilado.
Without Fernandez, the country failed to win a single gold medal in last September’s Kuala Lumpur SEAG, and none of her potential successors failed to make a dent in locally held ITF-sanctioned tournaments, where she always performed decently.
Hilado said UCC and the Philippine Lawn Tennis Association (Philta) is hand in hand in discovering new talents in the molds of Fernandez by staging ITF women’s tournaments here annually, like the two-leg UCC-ITF RP women’s tennis circuit set from Oct. 27 to Nov. 11 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
"Life goes on after Maricris Fernandez. In fact, we have several young players who might follow her footsteps," Hilado concluded.