Seeing the landing of a new tennis player in the elite is always tricky, especially when you have been following him for a long time. In the case of Elena-Gabriela RuseAs the player we are dealing with today, we will not say that we have followed her trail for years, but it is true that we have loved her performance this summer. Out of the world top 200, this 23-year-old Romanian signed two weeks of scandal in Hamburg (champion) and in Palermo (finalist), which helped him divide his ranking in half. Today, just eight places out of the top hundred, the one from Bucharest celebrates having passed the previous phase of the US Open 2021, where we will see her share a track with the greats. But first, we rescued this interview that found the portal 30-0 to get to know a little more about her.
Recent successes
“I think that the experiences I had recently have helped me to be much stronger on the track, although now I feel that everyone has high expectations for me. At the WTA 250 in Cluj, I remember arriving on the first day and hearing people say that I had to reach the final, but it is not as simple as they think. When you are in the 200th position, you are not prepared for something like that, especially mentally, but little by little I have been getting stronger. The only thing I would like to convey is that success is not the most important thing in sport ”.
Title in Hamburg, final in Palermo
“The Palermo tournament was more important than the Hamburg one, because it was the confirmation of what he had achieved the previous week, it was not a coincidence. Many Romanians had said that it was luck, but it was not, nothing in life is accidental, especially in the life of an athlete. It all depends on the perspective of the work that each one has, that work in the end has a reward. Good work always comes, that’s my motto right now ”.
a click mental
“The results are strictly related to the work done in recent years. In the past, victories didn’t mean that much, I didn’t understand 100% everything that was happening around me, but now I feel like my time has come. If this had happened to me at 18, when I had six match points against Radwanska at Wimbledon, I probably wouldn’t have understood anything. These results have come at a time when I was least thinking about winning, all I wanted was to stay in the tournaments. When you lose many games in a row, you will even want to play again ”.
Being alone, sometimes it is necessary
“The biggest change was born within me. A coach can help you, he can take care of you, but it all depends on you. A week before Hamburg I decided that I no longer needed help from anyone, that I should focus on what I wanted, not leave myself in the hands of others, make my own decisions. I kept waiting for the secret of success to come from someone else’s hand, but I stopped that thought, it was best to train on my own until I achieved it. Today I enjoy the pleasure of being alone on the court, of playing 100% every stroke or of being healthy. Years ago I didn’t even like to play tennis, I even thought about quitting several times this year. “
No numerical targets
“I don’t feel any pressure at the moment. I went through such a difficult period that I came to the conclusion that points, rankings and all those things are not important in my life. The fact of being healthy is the most important thing, being able to be 100%. I no longer have the pressure of qualifying because I have shown myself that, even though I am in 200th place, I can play super well at any time and achieve great results. If you work, of course ”.
Two mirrors to look at
“There were great players who came to me when I went through my most difficult moments. Players like Simona Halep or Monica Niculescu reminded me how well I played, they reminded me that I had to be patient and confident that the results would come. I thought a lot about his words, I valued him very much coming from them. When I saw Simona’s congratulations on Twitter after winning the tournament, I felt like I was touching heaven, we have a very good relationship and I was excited that she wrote that. I talk to Monica almost every day, she is our captain, in fact at the US Open we will play doubles together ”.
Medium-term vision
“As I no longer play ITF tournaments, the objectives are totally different, now I want to compete in the important tournaments. I still don’t think about the ranking, because I’m already there, I know with another good tournament I can get 70-80. Now the fundamental thing is to reach the level that I showed in Hamburg and Palermo, a state of a champion player, where you forget about any pain and just want to be on the court, making all the people who helped you proud. I keep training the same way, I think the most important training sessions are the games, that’s where I reach my best level ”.
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