She's back ~ L. Hamilton

9. | The Comeback

When I started in tennis no one watched women's tennis, even women didn't watch women's tennis, I mean how could we? Most matches were played on random courts with no audience and it was almost never streamed. Female tennis players never got any endorsement deals, we were barely even paid.

By the time I retired from tennis seven out of the ten most watched tennis matches of all time were women's, I played in all of them. Out of the top fifteen highest paid female athletes in the world, female tennis players were thirteen of them. I, a women, was the highest paid tennis player of all time.

And the whole world knows, that none of this would have been possible without me.

The world hates me, but that hate made people talk about me, made news stations talk about female tennis, made people watch women's tennis to talk bad about me.

I find it hilarious watching interviews of female tennis players getting asked questions about me, and they saying nothing but negative things about me, but while they say this they're wearing the clothes they bought with their salary, a salary that only exists because of me.

After I retired from tennis, me and my manager worked a lot on my image and getting people to like me. It was relatively easy because my brother was one of the most loved people in the world.

We did a tv show together, where we traveled around South America together in an rv and along the way we stopped off in places to learn about their food.

Immediately the show became immensely popular. People found me and Daniels dynamic hilarious.

And within a month the tv network was begging us to make a season two. After a lot of negotiations, we agreed. We traveled around Europe this time. Season two did just as well, becoming one of the most watched shows of the year.

And the world quickly adored me and Daniel together. We became known as a famous duo world wide. The Ricciardo Siblings is now a house hold name.

Since my retirement, I've also slowly become one of the faces of feminism. I didn't even do anything to warrant this, it just happened.

Because of this it led me to help found the 'HeForShe' movement and found 4 other charities.

I'm an extremely private person. The only way the public would know details about me is if Daniel or my uncle mentioned it in interviews. Even during my tennis days, when doing the post match interviews I would only spend the required time there and only answer questions relating to tennis. Why would I waste my time talking about myself when in the end the media would just use it to throw it back in my face.

Since retiring from tennis my life has been relatively boring. I've traveled the world with Daniel a couple of times for his races, getting to be with him as he claims title after title. I've also done a lot of charity work. I've spent a lot of time going around schools and encouraging more young girls to get into sport. I own houses across the world, so I've done a lot of travelling.

****

Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Winners

2012 | Lewis Hamilton

2013 | Lewis Hamilton

2014 | Lewis Hamilton

2015 | Lewis Hamilton

2016 | Daniel Ricciardo

2017 | Lewis Hamilton