Schiavone on the front scene for the first time
Francesca Schiavone is the first Italian athlete to triumph in a Grand Slam tournament. Just about a month ago, her victory at the Roland Garros court all of a sudden totally changed her level of popularity in the world of tennis. After landing back to Italy during the start of this month, even the workers at the airport custom department, also acknowledged her game and made her realize how much important she has become in the present arena of sports.
However, according to Schiavone, she has always been an important player of tennis but of course a Grand Slam victory has further brought her to the front scene. The fifth seeded player has stepped into the Wimbledon as ranked sixth which is her career top rankings. Schiavone will meet Vera Dushevina in today’s match on the court number 2 at Wimbledon.
The Italian tennis ace during the last season at Wimbledon did not play bad at all considering the fact that she reached into the quarterfinals of the tournament. Wimbledon is one of those championships where the William’s sisters grab most of the attention. Therefore, in the light of such William’s dominating atmosphere, Schiavone has been a lucky one to be talked about and given prominence more particularly due to her creative skills and positive improvement in her game.
Schiavone also regards the new level of importance and attention being given to her. During and after the Grand Slam tournament of the French Open, she formed the Italian newspaper’s cover more than twice, a peculiarity that she especially mentioned at the time of World Cup.
At her residence in Italy, around 1,000 people joined the greeting party for Schiavone. Strangers hugged her, embraced her, some even cried in front of her expressing their love and emotions for the Italian tennis star. According to Schiavone, it definitely feels great to be loved by the crowd for whom I play but being a human, sometimes one needs to be unaccompanied, she added.
However, the rise in popularity has also provoked the audience’s demands and expectations towards Schiavone along with a couple of sponsorships as well as interviews to be given. The Italian player even mentioned her first news conference prior to Wimbledon as one of the fresh moves.
Nevertheless, the right handed player has said that irrespective of how the world is treating her at the moment, she as a person is still the same as ever no matter how much Grand Slam event she wins in the future, her approach, game plan as well as strategy would never change.
Schiavone while talking about her performances refused to tell her exact age probably because of the reason that she has succeeded late in her career. The tennis ace from Italy undoubtedly rose up to the level of WTA quite late in her career. During her school days, Schiavone used to practice tennis for two hours daily in the afternoon.
As far as this year’s Wimbledon is concerned, a lot of people expect Schiavone to repeat her match winning knock of the French Open finals. However, according to her, William’s sisters have the greatest of chances as far as winning the trophy is concerned. Since 2000, both the sisters have won a total of eight women’s singles titles here with three by Serena and five by her sister Venus Williams. So they will definitely be looking forward to defend their crown this time as well.
Another alarming fact is that both the sisters have met each other in the final for about four times and they are seeded number one and two once again for this season as well. So the hopes are still high for a fifth encounter this time.
As far as Schiavone is concerned, she has definitely risen in her popularity and fame and the crowd will be hoping for a rocking performance from her side for sure.
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