Sportacentrs posted
a very long interview with Karlis. It's obviously too long to be translated in its entirety but here are some points I found interesting or didn't know before:
- he started playing tennis by chance. When he was in the first grade, a coach came to his school and asked children to try playing tennis. About 50 kids signed up but Karlis was the only one who continued playing for years.
- he and Ernests practiced together from age 11 till 14. They were no.1 and 2 in Latvia in their age group and they both had a similar level, one wasn't clearly better than the other.
- the reason he didn't go to a university in the US like he had planned to is that he found out he would have had to play tennis for their team and he couldn't compete seriously because of his knee.
- he was Peer's assistant coach until she split with her main coach in February. Then he had to act as the main coach until May when Peer found a new coach. Karlis said he didn't feel he was qualified to really be a main coach because of his lack of experience but he did the best he could. When she got a new coach he reverted back to his old role. Now Peer has finished her season and Karlis doesn't think he will continue to travel with her next season. He spent two weeks in May at Bresnik's academy with Ernests and Bresnik asked him to come back to coach children when he's available. Karlis enjoyed his coaching experience there in May so now he's going back to Vienna to work there.
- he enjoys coaching for now but he'd like to become an agent for tennis players eventually.
- he's glad for the opportunity to be the DC captain and he thinks it's an honor. He wants to help tennis in Latvia.
Riga Mortis: General Latvian tennis talk
Re: Riga Mortis: General Latvian tennis talk
WOW! I didn't know a lot of that. Thank you for posting! I wish he would have mentioned some of that in my interview 
