But it takes a bit of time to get used to playing together and the last few weeks has been great. |
I face Silvia Farina Elia in the next round and am looking forward to it as we played each other at the Olympics. I hope I can build on this win and go far in the tournament. |
I think we work hard as a team. We don't just go out there and take it for granted. On our days off, we go out there, as well as our singles, if we're still in the doubles tournament we have at least 45 minutes to an hour where we practice certain things that we need to do for the next match. |
I'd played against Sam and thought she's a total raw talent with a very bright future, |
If you are doing well, it is an incredible lifestyle. |
It never even crossed my mind to turn pro at 17 years old. I wasn't ready. Emotionally, I wasn't even close to being ready. My game, physically, I wasn't ready to be out here day in and day out. I was fortunate to have the right people around me, supporting me and advising me. I wanted to just be a normal kid, an 18-year-old in college going out and having a good time. I would not trade those two years for anything in the world. |
It took us a couple weeks to get on track. It was just a matter of time of us getting used to each other, getting comfortable, relaxing a little bit. The rest is kind of history, the past three weeks. |
It's a ball trajectory that you're not used to. She disguises it so well. She constantly keeps you guessing. |
It's a new role for me. In the past, I've played partners that were the less emotional leader. Now, I kind of take that role and it feels good. It's nice to be the one who kind of leads the team. It's been a nice role for me. |
It's so nice to come home and play in front of my friends and family, sleep in my own bed. I'm certainly going to miss that. |
It's unfortunate I wasn't able to do more with it. I had the momentum there. I was feeling really good. But then she came out just relaxed again after that break. It was nice to have the break, but at the same time, I had the momentum, so I was fine to keep going. |
She's just a total raw talent, |
She's proven it the past few weeks. She's only going to get better. |
The first couple of tournaments we played in we didn't do that great, |
They got off to a fast start, but we just had to hang in there. We knew we could eventually grind them down. |