Bruno Fitipaldo, who is completing an excellent start to the season, attends to ACE before going to the capital to play against Real Madrid. “In the last games we have always been in a close final that they have been able to handle better, but I think we can take it,” he recalls.
Despite the fact that a host of stars such as Llull, Heurtel, Williams-Goss … awaits them in a private capacity, he faces his particular Himalaya with enthusiasm: “They have very good players who demand a lot of me and make me have to be 100% concentrated I like it because it makes me compete at a high level and be a better player. “
Fitipaldo remains as impassive as he is humble despite the excellent sensations that his game gives off. “The team will find the best sensations and their best performance, and I think I have to go little by little and doing more and more things to help,” he acknowledges. Meanwhile, he is still in love with Marcelinho Huertas: “On the court he is everything to me, a reference for many years. Since my signing for Lenovo Tenerife was being formalized, he has always been helping me.”
An initial victory, two later victories. Can you be moderately happy with this Lenovo Tenerife league start?
Yes. Obviously we would have liked to win all three games, but luckily we recovered, something very important, against two difficult teams. Little by little I think that we are going to find our best version. We are on the good way.
In that good way, the most outstanding has been you. Memorable was his match against Unicaja, with 31 points.
I am feeling very well, very comfortable in the team since last year. In this I started feeling the same way, but as the team will find the best feelings and its best performance, I think I have to go little by little and each time doing more things to help the team and thus have a good position within it. . I am very comfortable with that.
They have a big game, the one that everyone wants to play. The visit to Real Madrid arrives. How are you experiencing such an important meeting?
Playing against Madrid is always an important, different game, which we prepare and face with great motivation. We played very recently (Super Cup). The truth is that in recent times we have faced very well, either in the Copa del Rey or the Super Cup, plus the league games. We will try to win. We know it is difficult. In the last games we have always been in a close final that they have been able to handle better, but I think we can take it.
The challenge is also huge for you, because on a personal level some of the best players in Europe await you in your position: Heurtel, Llull, Williams-Goss …
Yes, definitely. It is a great challenge for everything, also for that. They have very good players who demand a lot of me and make me have to be 100% focused. I like it because it makes me compete at a high level and be a better player. Hopefully we can control them, they are very aggressive players in attack. We are preparing it, and I think we are doing well.
You remembered before that matches against Madrid are already common, not only in the league. It is a clear symptom of the growth of the Lenovo Tenerife.
Of course. I think it is a good sign to be competing against them in all those tournaments. But to be really competing and not just facing them. As I say: our desire is to beat them, not to compete. I think we have already shown that we can compete with them, that we are a very good and solid team. We have to take one more step in those key moments of the game to try to win. We are visitors, we know that they are good, but we have weapons to harm them.
Last year his team stayed one match from the ACB final, reached the Copa del Rey semifinals … The bar cannot be higher. What is the objective of CB Canarias for this season?
Luckily, because we did things very well, that bar was set very high. Our goal is the same: try to get as high as possible in the ACB. We know that it is a competition with many good and strong teams in Europe. What we achieved last year is very difficult, but we will try to do it again. And the BCL we have to try to fight for the title. This is just beginning, we have to go step by step, but I think we are going to build that team to fight in all competitions.
What does the return of the public to the pavilions mean, and more so with a crowd as colorful and boisterous as Lenovo Tenerife?
It’s like all this makes sense again. Without the public, the essence of why we are here is lost. Playing with empty pavilions was very rare, although afterwards you got used to it. But now you realize why we play, why the ACB is the ACB, why basketball is lived so much. I’m very happy. Every game that we now go out to play with people in front is like an extra motivation that we were not able to realize before.
You share a team and position with an emblem of South American basketball, you are Uruguayan and he is Brazilian, as is Marcelinho Huertas. Years go by and their level increases. What does it mean to you to spend so much time with him?
First, share a team with him, beyond what he is as a player, as a person … Since I was coming here, he was always aware, very close to me. It’s amazing how he treated me and continues to treat me all this time. On the court it is everything. It is a reference for me for many years, it is an example. The competition with him every day, having to defend him, makes me improve. I am very happy that he is on my team, and I hope to play with him for as many years as I can.