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Hunter Becomes The Hunted, As Explained By A Grand Slam Champion
· Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
Iva Majoli shocked the world and won the French Open in 1997 at age 19 by beating Martina Hingis 64 62, ending the Swiss Miss’s 37 match win streak and Grand Slam hopes (Hingis won the other three majors that year).
After her monumental breakthrough, the Croatian woman was prepared for the different pressures of of going from being the hunter to the hunted…
“I won tournaments, big ones, before that French Open, but nothing is the same as a Grand Slam. I think I even worked harder because I knew that everyone was going to try to beat me even more,” said Majoli at a press conference months after her life-changing conquest.
That’s what happens when a young player wins a Grand Slam title – everybody else wants to try to beat that new champion even more.
Emma Raducanu is experiencing that reality now – as have other recent one-slam wonders
like Dominic Thiem, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jelena Ostapenko, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys.
Majoli would only win one more WTA title after French Open – 2002 in Charleston over Patty Schnyder 76 64.
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