Tennis Prose




Apr/15

3

Carla Suarez Navarro Targets Queen Serena’s Throne…and Top Ranking

carla

I have to admit, before this week I didn’t know anything about Carla Suarez Navarro, never saw or read one of her interviews, just saw her play her unique and crafty game on TV a few times.

Let’s get to know the young lady from Canary Islands in Spain who will challenge defending Miami Open champion Serena Williams on Saturday afternoon.

“I like to read. Go to cinema at home. Sleep. But (I’m) nothing special. I relax on the court and also off.”

“I can read every kind of book, history, novels, but police stories also.”

“I start to play when I was nine. I practice basketball. I swim. But tennis was the sport that I most like.”

“So I play, not every day, but two times a week. Then when I was eleven, I play or practice every day since to today.”

“I went to Barcelona when I was eighteen (to train).”

After Carla defeated Venus Williams in the quarters, her third time beating Venus in five tries, I asked Carla what is her ultimate goal in tennis, to be number one? Or two win a certain major?

Her ambitious answer was surprising.

“Yeah, normally all the tennis players want to be number one but the first step I think is to be in top hundred, and top 50, then top 20, top 10. And you never know. But I want to be number one, yeah.”

This answer was surprising because the two most recent threats to take down Serena – Simona Halep and Li Na – have both basically conceded Number One to Serena, with Halep saying she can only be number one if Serena retires. So it sounds like Carla is not deferring anything to Serena, she wants to be the WTA Queen Bee, and she obviously believes it’s possible.

Here is some more info about Carla, who just entered the top ten for the first time…

She is currently the highest rank WTA player with a one hand backhand.

She first rose to prominence by defeating world #6 Venus in the 2009 Australian Open, when she was ranked 46.

She won her first career title in Oeiras, defeating Kuznetsov from 4-1 down in the third set, then won 18 of the next 24 points. Previously, Carla had been 0-5 in WTA finals.

She qualified at WTA finals in doubles with Garbine Muguruza last year.

In 2008 she qualified and reached Roland Garros quarters while ranked 132. She was the lowest ranked QFist since Mary Pierce.

She had an elbow surgery in 2011 which caused her to miss four months.

Venus Williams, who has played Carla five times, certainly has come away impressed by the Spanish woman’s unique game. After their match earlier this week in Miami, Venus said, “She’s playing well every year. Better every year. I’m sure she can play even better.”

Carla Suarez Navarro, future WTA number one? It’s possible…

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