Slammed, стр. 26
It was also the kind of moment in which less experienced players tended to choke.
Some of the most accomplished players had come back from Keiko’s position, even in major finals, to clean up and claim the match that seemed rightfully theirs on paper. I was one of them. My mother had told me early on that the points on the board didn’t matter until the match was over. What mattered going into each point was who believed they could win it. Belief trumped a head start if it was strong enough.
“Who’s got you so fascinated?” Alice teased, sitting on the couch opposite and kicking her feet up on the coffee table. “You missed a great breakfast, by the way.”
“Shush!” I warned, as Keiko served again. The rally was short. Sharp. Fierce. And it ended with Toni smashing the ball into a corner that Keiko couldn’t reach.
“Game, set, match, Ms Cortes Ruiz,” said the umpire, his steady tones contrasting with the crowd erupting on all sides.
Toni was on the ground, prostrate in front of the crowd. In love with an underdog as always, they were raising the non-existent roof on her behalf. After scrambling back to her feet, Toni jogged to the net in a daze, shaking Keiko’s hand and accepting muttered words of congratulation. They each shook the umpire’s hand, and Toni raised her hands in acknowledgement of the crowd again.
“Well, that is a shocker,” Mira’s voice said, in post-match commentary. Awesome; she’d branched out from the BBC. No wonder, really, with her experience, but I dreaded to think what she’d be saying about me on television in the coming days. “A real first-round upset, a result that no one would have predicted looking at the draw.”
“Jim,” she addressed her co-commentator, both of them still off-screen as the cameras lingered on Toni and Keiko packing up and leaving court. “Does this mean Ruiz is back on track? Before her injury layoff, there was a lot of speculation that she was ready to step up and bag her first slam.”
“Well, I don’t think she’s at that level yet, Mira.”
Good for you, Jim, I thought. Too many people just agreed with every word she said out of deference. Clearly he had his own opinion.
“No, but has she rediscovered that potential?” Mira didn’t sound pleased at being challenged.
“Oh, for sure, and beating a top seed is always a huge confidence boost. Still, the draw hasn’t been kind to our new giant killer, because next round she faces… Well, let’s have a look at the brackets, shall we?”
The screen brought up the draw and zoomed in on my collision course with Toni, just two rounds away.
“That’s right, Jim, the reward for an unexpected victory—and she has every chance against a lower ranked player in the second round—is to face the top seed and world number one, Elin Larsson. Reward or punishment?”
I tossed the remote aside and leaned back on the cushions with a groan.
“Let’s ask the lady herself,” Jim said, approaching Toni who was coming into shot with her tracksuit top on and racquet bag over her shoulder. Her smile could have powered the Eastern seaboard, bright and beaming. “Antonia Cortes Ruiz, you’ve just knocked out the number thirteen seed, Keiko Kobayashi. How does that feel?”
“Honestly? Kind of amazing. I didn’t know if I had a chance, but it just started going my way.”
“Well, you looked very settled out there, very sure of yourself. Is this your real comeback from injury now? Can you get back to the level you were before?”
The crinkle of a frown between her eyebrows. Jim could have phrased that better.
“I hope so. I’ve worked really hard, and my coach and team have done everything they can to get me back here.”
“In the next round, you have what many would call a winnable match against Sasha. You’re certainly in with a chance.”
“Well, I don’t take anything for granted. She’s been a great player for a long time, so I’ll have to be at my best.” Tactful, respectful. Nice.
Mira barged in with her microphone then. “Assuming you do progress, you get what many will call the toughest path through the tournament. Elin Larsson has been the brick wall for so many young players, the one obstacle they just cannot get past. Do you have a strategy in mind?”
“Well, I have to qualify to play her first,” Toni said with a little laugh. “But bring it on, I say. If you don’t want to test yourself against the best in the world, why play at all, you know? This is a huge tournament, and she’s the goddess of tennis, so… But I need to win my next match and then I’ll worry about Elin.”
Alice threw a cushion at me for the goddess comment. Fair. It also gave me something to hide my blushes behind. I switched the television off, remembering I had planned to go out and be in the world. “You want to come gallery hopping?”
All I got from Alice was a groan.
“Fine, I’ll go alone.”
“You should. Being a goddess and all.”
Okay, so I was never living that one down. Good to know, and somehow completely worth it. I grabbed my bag and some sunglasses, eager to be out on the streets of New York.
Chapter Ten
I changed up the habit of the past few years and set my coaching team, under my mother’s watchful eye, into doing some opposition research on one Antonia Cortes Ruiz.
“Why this girl?” my mother asked when I made the offhand request. “She got lucky with Keiko, and playing another nobody won’t give her much of a warmup in the second round. You don’t have to worry about anyone until the quarter-finals at the soonest.”
“Mamma, trust me. It’s