What motivates you to get into tennis and try again?
I feel that I have not done everything. I still have the fire in me, I still have the desire to play. I will try.
In 2013, you left professional tennis for the first time, but then you returned. How was that situation different?
There were other problems. Mainly emotional. Private. There were problems affecting the coach question. Now it is different. I was 23 then, now almost 33. Now I have a cool life anyway! I like my life even without tennis. If I can’t return to tennis, I will play golf! (Laughs.) I have a daughter and nothing beats that. I am a mother. I now have different thoughts, a different maturity of life.
Back then, returning to tennis for the first time, everything went very well. How would you explain it yourself?
There was nothing to lose. I started with small tournaments, I was not in the WTA ranking. What can you lose there? Nothing, just get. The first year was easier than the second or third year, because you don’t have to defend ranking points in the first year. Those are cool memories, my husband and I still call back that year with very good memories. We went to small tournaments, and it was sometimes cooler than the big ones. Less stress. Now it’s a different situation because I have a “protected rank”.
