"You got to the round of sixteen your first tournament back Del" my uncle says. I am lying in the trainers room with an ice pack on my shoulder and my knee "that something to be proud of"
"Something to be proud of? Since when was loosing something to be proud of?"
In a moment, I'll have a shower and head to the press room for an interview. Wade is already in there, gloating I'm sure. Which is her right. She won after all.
I'm the fucking looser who has to go out there and face them. Knowing that I've been outsmarted and out played. What makes it worse is that I know, I know I'm the better tennis player. That's the full weight of my failure.
"You have no patience" my uncle says "you still don't understand that you can't have everything the second you want it"
"I am going to ignore you now" I say, sitting up and taking the towel off my head that I had been using to help cool me down. "And go talk to the press about throwing away my chance at a title. But feel free to remember that lecture and give it to me later"
"Delaney-" my uncle says
"I'll meet you back at the hotel" I say
My uncle keeps talking, but I'm not listening, I walk away into the locker room, past all the other players and straight into the shower.
At the post match press conference, the room is packed, the reporters and cameras are all over me.
"I did not play my best today. And I have to live with that" I repeat over and over again.
"After three very successful matches back" a man says "does this loss take you by surprise? How are you feeling at this moment?"
"I am feeling like I played poorly and a bunch of stupid reporters keep asking me stupid fucking questions about how it feels to suck. Obviously I am not happy right now, do I look it? But I'll use this to fuel me to play better in the future as I always have"
"But at some point" another man says "everyone's game declines. Is that what we are seeing here?"
"What a stupid fucking question. Why don't you go ask the three other women I bet in straight sets if my game is declining?"
"What will you do now?" A women asks
"I will go home and get to work, ready to win in Paris"
"Yes, but clay is notoriously your toughest surface" a women says "you've only won the French open once throughout your entire career"
"Yeah, well" I say "watch me win it again in '23"
They continue to ask questions, but I look down at my watch and realise I've been here for seven minutes already, and with that I stand up, ignoring their words, and walk out the door.
****
Back at the hotel, I get in the elevator and head to my room. But as I round the corner. I stop as I see him standing in the hallway with his suitcase.
"Hamilton?"
"I wasn't sure if you're a 'wants company when the lose' sort of person or an 'everyone get away from me' sort of person" he says
"I think I'm an, everyone get away from me person" I say
Lewis nods "roger that" he says as he grabs his suitcase "I'll be going"
I walk towards him "why the suitcase?"
"I was supposed to be on a flight to London this morning so it meant I checked out of my room this morning"
YOU ARE READING
She's back ~ L. Hamilton
FanfictionDelaney Ricciardo is fierce and her determined to win at any cost has not made her well liked. But by the time she retires from tennis she is a twenty four grand slam winner and regarded as the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. But si...
