RG favorite Heh?Nah was bounced in the first round of Madrid by gold lame Aravane. Justine said she wasn't feeling well and didn't have the energy to dig deep in this one. I mean, I guess. But like, you bageled in the third set. That's a whole lot of give up.
Nice win for Aravane, though.
In less surprising news, Masha's out too, losing to Lucie in straight sets. Given how long the Masher's been off the court and Lucie's solid play of late, this isn't all that shocking. What's shocking is that Maria only served four double faults. She'll try and continue her RG preparation at Strasbourg next week.
Loved this from Maria after the match:
Love the perspective.After this setback, she started with the usual platitudes about being too slow off the mark; wishing she had more matches under her belt and moving forward.
Then someone asked her if it was a pain for her to have to change her travel arrangements because of this early loss. Weren’t the logistics a bit difficult?
“That’s why we get paid so well,” she shot back and then went on to reveal a little about her philosophy of life.
“We don’t get paid because everything is brought to us on a gold plate every single day. We don’t wake up in the morning with someone brushing the clay off our shoes. We go out there and we work as many hours as we need to become better. There’s no real secret to success. People ask you why you won this and why you became that. I don’t know. That’s the way life goes. Why is this a difficult period for me? I don’t know. It’s a lesson.
“I still have to go out tomorrow and change my flights and it’s not a big deal – I mean it is a big deal but it’s just another thing. The bottom line is that you rely on a strong family back home. Because realistically a tennis match is a tennis match. We hit a yellow tennis ball with a racket and it’s actually quite funny when you think about it. But that’s my life at the moment and I enjoy doing it and I know what comes with it.”
