Artin Elmayan is hard to keep pace with as he heads for the locker rooms at River Plate.
“I’ve got to get my rackets,” he says under the shadow of the Monumental, the giant stadium which is home to one of the world’s great soccer clubs where members enjoy a variety of sports.
Armenian-born Elmayan’s choice is tennis, a sport he took up at the age of 39. Now, aged 95, he is the world’s oldest ranked player.
Photo: Reuters
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranks Elmayan 26th among men over 85, a list headed by Italian Angelo Sala who will be 86 in December.
There are only 39 men in the ITF’s over-85 ranking, three of them Argentines, and Elmayan is the only one born before 1920.
The next oldest are Eugeniusz Czerepaniak of Poland who is 91 and ranked one place above Elmayan, and 90-year-old Australian Neville Halligan, the No. 8.
Elmayan does not compete internationally so he is likely to meet only fellow-Argentines Guillermo Garcia or Jose Otero, both in their 80s, in competitions.
“Eighty-five plus, because there isn’t anyone who’s 90, much less 95. So I have to play against 85-year-olds,” Elmayan told Reuters in an interview.
“I do all right, sometimes I take second place. Last year I won second place twice. It depends on the state of my opponent, and my own. There are no enigmas here,” he said after a 20-minute knockup with one of the club’s coaches.
The sprightly Elmayan enjoys a routine that keeps him slim and happy, traveling by train into the capital to River Plate from the suburbs three times a week.
“If my body and feet allow it, I’m not going to sit still. As far as stretching, I take the train and walk from the station to here. When I get here I’ve already loosened up,” he said.
Elmayan said that if he had to play three sets, he was able to cope and recalled having recently played and lost against Garcia, seven years younger than him, and then suggesting they go for a run.
“Are you crazy, now you want to run?” Elmayan, laughing, recalled Garcia as saying.
Elmayan, who emigrated to Argentina from Europe when it was on the verge of war in 1938 at the age of 21, said he took up tennis as a hobby and has never looked back.
He is part of a large Armenian community in Argentina that includes leading professional and former world No. 3 David Nalbandian.
Elmayan said he had never had a tennis lesson, taking his cue from playing “paleta”, a sport with a wooden paddle-like racket and rubber ball that he played when he was younger.
“No one told me how to hold a racket, I copied it from paleta and went on from there,” he said.
Elmayan’s whole family plays or played tennis, his wife now 88, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.
He lost a grandson, who represented the club at tennis, at the age of 21 from cancer, a shock that may have added to his fierce grip on life.
“First there is eating and then comes tennis. It is part of my life to stay in shape in every way,” said Elmayan from behind his goggle-like sunglasses on a bright late winter’s day in Buenos Aires.
“Tennis makes you breathe oxygen, keeps your body in shape, keeps you from getting a belly, or getting fat, helps fight cholesterol problems and everything,” he said. “Now, if you stop coming, if I go two months without playing, I’ll get a belly.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to