Yves Allegro, the Swiss doubles specialist, grew up in the small town of Grone, Switzerland. His father built a tennis club, and that’s where Allegro was introduced to the sport as a toddler. His father never coached him; instead, they had a very healthy relationaship and Allegro worked with another of his father’s club’s teaching pros. He stayed in Grone until the age of fifteen when he moved to Lausanne to train at the Swiss Federation Tennis School. He would go to school from 8am until 2pm, then he would train in the afternoons. His roommate for two years at the academy was none other than Roger Federer. Upon graduating at the age of 19, the Swiss Tennis Federation abandoned Allegro because they felt his tennis potential was not good enough.
He was forced to move to Halle, Germany, where he played German club tennis and joined the Breakpoint Team, which supported his tennis playing aspirations. Playing as a professional, he started to have success on the doubles tour and has won three ATP tiles, two with Federer
and one with Germany’s Michael Kohlmann.
In 2004, he was picked to play Davis Cup for Switzerland and has been a member of the team since then. He played doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics. His highest doubles ranking has been No. 31, and he attributes much of his success to his Spanish coach, Juan Barcelo.
His favorite tournaments are Wimbledon and Munich.
In his downtime away the tour, he is pursuing a degree in sports management from a school in Switzerland over the internet.
One of the highlights of the year for him is when he runs a junior tennis camp in Verbier, Switzerland in mid-July. “I love working with kids, and it’s nice to help out some of my country’s youngsters,” says Allegro. He plans on starting a partnership soon with the Romanian upstart Davis Cup player Horia Tecau soon. At the moment, you can catch the Swiss player playing with Paul-Henri Mathieu at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Until next week, enjoy your tennis!
