Big wins and titles are great, but for Roland Garros semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky, it’s all about the improvements a player makes along the way.
“I think you can improve all the time, even if it’s on small things – which is quite nice because then you always have a goal,” the 2015 WTA Most Improved Player Of The Year said during the WTA Insider Podcast. “Our real goal is to improve a little bit, all the time, on everything. So I can say, ‘OK, I run better than last year. This was a great improvement. I can defend better, and maybe I will still try even more for next year.’
“Overall, I think you can improve in every department, even for myself because I’m a pretty complete player.”
Bacsinszky’s complete game clicked for much of the 2015 season, carrying momentum from the year before when she upset Maria Sharapova en route to the quarterfinals of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, and even farther back than that, when she decided to give tennis a second try after a foot injury led her to step away from the game.
“The comeback is over for me. It was like a second career. Now I’m starting my third career, because I would obviously like to last longer, to be healthy, and still enjoy playing.”
If her third career is anything like her second, there will certainly be plenty to enjoy. The Swiss began 2015 in bright fashion, beating Petra Kvitova to make the finals in Shenzhen, and later going on a 15-match win streak that took her to two titles and into the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open against World No.1 Serena Williams.
“I played 16 matches in a row with 15 wins. I was quite happy, and that was also with flights in between, some jet lag. My body was really well prepared, and I have to thank my physical coach for that, my coach too – my team. This is also about scheduling, to be healthy, to be fit to play and to last long. Everyone is different. You just have to try to find the best balance for yourself.”
Bacsinszky played balanced tennis through a heroic Fed Cup weekend – almost single-handedly leading the Swiss Team into World Group I over an Agnieszka Radwanska-led Poland – and into the clay court season, besting Kvitova for a second time in Paris to meet Williams again in the final four of the French Open. Leading by a set and a break, the rising Swiss played flawless tennis before the American was ultimately able to raise her game. Dealing with the loss, Bacsinszky explained, was compounded by the exponential increase in attention.
“I lost on a Thursday, got back on Friday, and on Saturday morning I went into the city to buy some things for a friend’s birthday. I was just walking with shades – it was sunny! I was not hiding, or something – but maybe 40 people recognized me in Lausanne.
“It was a tough loss and everyone was there to remind me. They’re super proud, but they keep on talking about it and you have to have the same face for the first person and the last, even if there were like 40 in between. This is sometimes tough because we’re normal human beings and we cannot be perfect every day, and sometimes we have tougher days and just don’t want to talk. But because we’re public we have to be nice and have to talk.”
The glare of the spotlight was hardly hers alone; Bacsinszky was one of many successful Swiss Misses (and Misters in Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer) to grab headlines, but even that presented its fair share of challenges.
“The Swiss media started to talk about how there’d be two men in the Top 5 and maybe two women and comparing Belinda [Bencic] and me, which makes no sense because yes, we’re Swiss, but she’s 18 and I have another story. I’m not comparing myself to anyone. I have my own career, and that’s it.
“I’m the first Timea Bacsinszky and I’m going to be the last one too. Unless…” she trailed off with a chuckle. “But then they’d have to have the same last name spelling as mine, so good luck with that!”
Suddenly in a position to qualify for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, Bacsinszky admitted she lost focus of what brought her there in the first place.
“What am I chasing? I’m going to burn myself playing zillions of tournaments until the end of the year just to maybe qualify for something? I talked a lot with my team and they helped me to realize that I didn’t have to play to be in the top at the end of this year. I almost wanted to rush everything, which is something I wasn’t doing for two years. I had been the one who was always saying, ‘slow down, it’s all right.’
“I realized I’m not chasing anything. I just want to be happy with my game to feel that I’m improving every day when I step on the court, in practice or at a match. If you try to run after something all the time, for me it makes no sense. I’m just trying to improve, and if I get the chance to go there, then good for me.
“If not, it’s all right. I will go to bed every evening, and I will wake up in the morning and have a nice breakfast. Life goes on.”
Taking her time after the US Open, Bacsinszky was refreshed and ready for the end of the Asian Swing, reaching the biggest final of her career at the China Open, losing a tight two-setter to Garbiñe Muguruza, and narrowly missing out on a Singapore berth.
But Singapore was never the goal, neither were her Grand Slam successes. Timea Bacsinszky truly came back for the love of the game.
“I’m just already focusing on the next year,” she said, adding an extra ‘s’ to emphasize how she was thinking beyond 2016. “I hope my career is going to be long and I have to preserve my body as well.”
With two careers under her belt, Bacsinszky’s “big eyes” have seen what it takes to succeed on the big stages; all that’s left to do is improve.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
