The Mexican Fernanda Contreras is going to try to settle down in professional tennis after having reached the second round of Roland Garrosin which she was eliminated although the tournament has left her with very good feelings.
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“It gives me a lot of confidence to have been able to play here at this level (…) After this result, yes, I will try to continue” in professionalism, he assured Contreras to the press after today’s match, in which he fell to the Russian Daria Kasatkina (20th seed) 6-0 and 6-3.
“Kasatkina played a very good match, I give all the credit to her, she deserves it and good luck in the second round,” he acknowledged sportingly.
She explained that she is “ecstatic” by the experience of playing a second round of a Grand Slamafter overcoming three qualifying matches and the first knockout round, which was “a total dream”.
“Although he beat me, I was really enjoying tennis, the atmosphere, the Mexican fans,” he recalled. He pointed out that after receiving a resounding 6-0 in the first set he decided to “change to plan B”, because “you adapt or not”, and that allowed him to win three games in the second set.
Contreras equaled the best result of a Mexican tennis player in Roland Garrosthe second round that reached Renata Zarazúa in 2020.
Having decided to consolidate her bid to pursue professional tennis, the 24-year-old mechanical engineer said she will now focus on the UK grass court season for four weeks.
“I have never played on grass, but I have been told that it is a very fun surface (…) I am excited for that, for the whole tour of England,” he said.
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Tennis tradition for Fernanda Contreras
After graduating in 2019 from Vandebilt University (USA), he gave himself two years to try his luck on the circuit, although the pandemic and a wrist injury delayed his plans to try his luck as a tennis player.
The tennis player’s granddaughter Francisco “Pancho” Contreraswho was part of the historic Mexican team of Copa Davis who reached -and lost- the 1962 final against Australia believes that in his country tennis has an opportunity to develop, but young people need to believe in their possibilities.
“Yes, it can be done,” he says, although he emphasizes that Mexican tennis players themselves need to have a strong mentality and be the first to “believe that it can be done,” he insists while proudly displaying a flag of his country.
Even so, he acknowledges that having “support in the country always helps.”
EFE
