You can’t eat, you can’t see: Hugo Dellien’s strange path to a challenger Tour hat-trick! | ATP Tour

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You can’t eat, you can’t see: Dellien’s strange path to a Challenger Tour hat-trick!

The Bolivian is a 12-time ATP Challenger Tour champion

August 13, 2024

The pain is sudden. His head was pounding. Hugo Dellien was awake at midnight. To make matters more frustrating, the Bolivian was competing that week in the Roland Garros qualifiers, a clay court where he beat two-time finalist Dominic Thiem in the opening round in 2022.

But this year’s trip to the Parisian clay for Dellien was the start of a difficult period for the 31-year-old, who turned his fortunes around with three ATP Challenger Tour titles last month. Dellien fell in the first round of qualifying for Roland Garros and soon returned home to South America to deal with severe pain in his mouth that painkillers could not relieve.

“It’s been a difficult time because I have a lot of things about my wisdom teeth. I had three wisdom teeth removed,” Dellien told ATPtour.com. “So much pain in my head. I couldn’t eat anything, only ice cream. If you remove just one wisdom tooth, you can eat. But not with three.

“I chose to take these three out because it’s been one time and it’s gone. It was a difficult moment.”

Two days after competing in France, Dellien had his wisdom tooth removed. And in his first tournament back, the Santa Fe Challenger, adversity struck again in a freak accident.

In his second round match, Dellien was hit in the eye by a ball, which deflected the frame of his racquet as it hit the net.

“I could not see anything with my right eye. There was no swelling or anything, but I couldn’t go on because I couldn’t see well and I had a lot of pain in my head and eyes as well,” Dellien recalled. “Unlucky this time.”

For a moment, Dellien looked frustrated as he tried to continue the game. His efforts were suppressed by events he did not know. He retired shortly after suffering an eye injury and went to see a doctor in Buenos Aires, where he has lived since leaving Bolivia at the age of 17.

“The doctor said to me, ‘You have to close your eyes for 20 hours [a day]because the eye will be better alone. You don’t need a pill or treatment, it will get better naturally. But you should cover them as much time as possible. Because if you open them, it won’t heal anymore’.

“You said it, but I can’t do it. I tried to do it as much time as possible, but not 20 hours!” Dellien said.

After two weeks away from the championship game, it didn’t take long for Dellien to find his best form. He has won 17 of his last 19 Challenger-level matches, including three titles: Iasi, Romania; Liberec, Czech Republic; and in Bonn, Germany this past Sunday. Dellien is about to return to the Top 100, which he has not been a part of since March 2023.

Hugo Dellien wins the Challenger 75 event in Bonn, Germany.”>
^{Hugo Dellien wins the Challenger 75 event in Bonn, Germany. Credit: Bonn Open}

Currently the World No. 107 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Dellien, who rose to No.

“I am very happy because in the last six, eight months I have not been playing well. I did not have good results. I worked hard but the results were not coming out,” said Dellien. “But I think that the support of my family, my team, and all the people who follow me, has given me the strength to change this time. I think I play better now. I won the tough games, I had the confidence to play better. I won Iasi and it changed.”

Dellien lifted the Iasi Challenger title one week after his brother Murkel Dellien claimed his first title at that level in Romania. “This is very important to us,” said Hugo, whose nickname is ‘La Pantera’, which translates to ‘The Panther’.

A 12-time Challenger champion, Dellien credits his family and team for supporting him in helping him regain his confidence. His wife Camila gave birth to twin girls in January, making the family five. Their first child, Mila, was born in 2020.

“My wife knows the life of tennis because she was also a professional tennis player. You know what the job is like,” said Dellien. He said to me, ‘You can do it, just relax and work hard.’ The support of my family is the most important thing in my life. If I don’t have this support, I can’t do anything.”