After 20 minutes on the red ash from third place, Maximilian Ebenburger recognizes his opponent's weak point: the backhand.
That is also urgently needed, because the 16-year-old Bavarian is 1: 4 behind in the first set.
His opponent here, at the "Rafa Nadal Open" in Manacor in the east of Mallorca, is a local of the same age from the neighboring town of Porto Cristo.
It's the first round - and Maximilian has to improve.
This Sunday morning he is playing at home: on one of the 45 places at the "Rafa Nadal Academy".
It is a tennis boarding school for young people between the ages of twelve and 18 that is unique in Europe.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner Nadal founded it in 2016 in his hometown on the island.
In the mornings, the youngsters study at an international school, in the afternoons they lift dumbbells, jump rope and train forehand.
Or the other way around.
The academy is now as well known as Nick Bollettieri's former tennis school in the United States.
Nadal, as he himself explained, is happy when one of the youngsters at his boarding school becomes a professional;
for him it is also important that the adolescents develop their personality.
Other tennis professionals are relocating to Monte Carlo for tax reasons, Nadal officially lives in his hometown. Here he puts on rubber boots to sweep away mud after a storm in the neighboring town. That was in 2018, a flash flood in Sant Llorenç killed 13 people. The tennis pro cruises along the east coast with his yacht “Great White” and posts photos in swimming trunks. Here he occasionally plays tennis with the students of his boarding school. Nadal ended the season in August due to problems with his left foot. He recently arrived in Melbourne, where the tour traditionally starts in January.
The 7.5-hectare academy is home to 156 students from 43 countries, and 300 employees look after them. Among them are 45 trainers, physiotherapists, sports psychologists and nutrition experts. There is a gym, soccer field, spa, swimming pool, pool, restaurant, canteen, hotel - and the Rafael Nadal Museum. There are Nadal's trophies, the shirt and pants that he wore during a several-hour final in Wimbledon.
Maximilian Ebenburger still has a long way to go before he can take part in the world's most important tennis tournament on the lawn in London. His greatest success is a third place at the Upper Palatinate Championships. And right now he's fighting for entry into the second round, which means the quarter-finals, at the tournament in Manacor. Maximilian now scores a lot of points on the red ash from place 3 because his opponent's backhand underspin increasingly ends up in the net. He himself hits a backhand down the line out of reach, clenches his fist and wipes his sweaty hair from his forehead. A few minutes later he equalizes to 4:4.
In September 2020 Maximilian emigrated to Mallorca.
He was 15 then. The plan was only for a year, but he has now been living in Manacor for 16 months, which has 43,000 inhabitants and numerous windmills.
Did Maximilian come to the island to become a professional?
"Rather less," he says.
"I should have started playing tennis earlier for that." Melbourne, Miami, Basel: The desire to play a tournament every week as a professional player in a different city in the world is inherent in him: "If you never play his If you follow dreams, it can't be anything either."