‘Morning everybody! Right in time between a sip of coffee and a bite of pastry we give you yesterday’s post-match interview (SpazioTennis). Sarita tells us about how she supposedly escaped a sprained ankle, her tactics for the day and her perception of the heat”.

“I have already put on some ice (ref. right ankle), we will see if it swells or not. I asked the physio for some good advice during the MTO but in the end I decided not to bandage since it didn’t really hurt right there and then. I am not used to play with taped ankles anyway so I decided to take some time to see how it felt.”

“I thought she was definitively in the zone and also able to push through every single shot. My defense on her backhand down-the-line was almost harmless, it didn’t look good for me, that is why I felt pretty nervous at one point. My goal was to switch a little more on her forehand and try to move her with some more spinned shots but it wasn’t that easy because my down-the-line backhand game is not that strong compared to hers.

Finally she slowed down a little so I could push a bit more and stay close to her. Like I said, I was pretty nervous because I saw she was consistently fighting hard and didn’t want to lower the pace of the rallies”.

“About the conditions, yes, no doubt it was hot today but truth is I don’t really feel like it is going to be a problem for me on court anymore since I have played in Rio.  It  was so hot you could barely breathe while playing, so I guess it might have changed my temperature perception for good, like Pablo Lozano says.”