Sebastian Torok, journalist for LA NACION and the author of the book “Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant” has been named the winner of the 2022 Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award.
“Receiving this award really honours me and fills me with happiness and enthusiasm to continue telling stories in the future,” Torok said to the ATP. “I lived intense moments during more than 15 years of coverage of the international tennis circuit and it is a privilege to have known new countries and cultures.”
Torok has been a journalist for the Argentine newspaper LA NACION since 2000. He has covered football, rugby, boxing and handball but focuses mainly on tennis, reporting on Argentina’s Davis Cup Finals title run in 2016, which is also detailed in his “Gentle Giant” book.
Torok has been a radio columnist and, since 2018, has been a commentator on ESPN Latin America. The Argentine received international recognition at the AIPS Sport Media Awards for various investigations and one of his career highlights as a journalist was interviewing Roger Federer in Basel in 2019.
Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant” for sale and download here via amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559920/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_lRArEbY4VMWP3 tells the story of one of Argentina’s greatest tennis players and the most important of his generation. After winning the 2009 U.S. Open, defeating Roger Federer in a glorious five-set final, del Potro was poised to take over the tennis world. However, wrist problems developed and del Potro endured three surgeries over 15 months. One of the world’s most popular players, del Potro’s fan base grew as he made his comeback—watching him win his second Olympic medal in Rio in 2016, where he once lost to Andy Murray, but won the hearts of millions around the world. He followed up by leading Argentina to victory in the Davis Cup. Described as the “Gentle Giant,” del Potro has the sensitivity to comfort a ball girl hit during a match, to stop in the middle of the game to gaze at a butterfly, and to accompany a young fan in the last days of his life. However, when he grips the racket, he becomes one of the most destructive strikers of a tennis ball.
“This book is an unprecedented trip to the emotional and sporting aspect of one of the best tennis players of the last decade,” said Torok, the author of the book, an internationally regarded tennis writer for La Nacion and with ESPN in Argentina. “Juan Martin del Potro is someone who lived with tragedy since his childhood, a tennis player who hit bottom and had the strength to persevere multiple times. This book was created with more than 70 interviews of people who, in one way or another, had to do with the life of del Potro. I am very excited and proud that this book is now available in English around the world.”
The Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award is named for Ron Bookman, an early pioneer in tennis public relations. As described in the “Pioneers of the Game” book, Bookman was the first tennis PR person for the WCT Tour in 1967, an editor at World Tennis magazine from 1971 to 1980 and a former ATP Director of Communications. He also served as the ATP Joint Secretary of the Men’s Tennis Council, Acting Executive Director and ATP Deputy Executive Director before his untimely death at age 46 in a bicycle accident.
Executive Director in 1986-1988 until his untimely accidental death in 1988.
