Delaney 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...
Moretan strides onto the court in a white and navy blue tennis dress, waving to the crowd. She blows kisses to the crowd and when she turns to look at me she gives me a big smile.
I'd picked out a white two piece set with green accents. My R necklace hanging from my neck was the only piece of jewellery I was wearing.
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I win the toss at the start, I elected to serve first.
I make my way to the baseline. I hit my shoes off my racket, knocking the excessive clay off them. One of the ball boys throws me three tennis balls, I bounce the three of them, picking the best one, sliding one into my shorts under my skirt and tossing the other one back to him.
Moretan starts strong.
But I'm stronger.
15-love becomes 15-all.
30-15 becomes 30-all
Three hours later and we are in the third set, it's 6-6.
I took the first set easily, but she bounced back in the second after downing an energy gel sachet. Now we were at tiebreak, whoever won now would go into the quarterfinals.
The crowd is cheering like crazy, I don't know if they're cheering for me or against me because I'm working on tuning them out.
I look up at my players box, my uncle was hovering around the door, bouncing nervously from foot to foot. Daniel was sitting next to Heidi in front of him, both of their hands up with their fingers crossed.
My uncle sends me a nod.
It's my serve. I need to hold onto this. If I do, I'm into the quarterfinals. And not only will I have done better than in Australia, but I will prove every single fucking person and news station wrong.
I close my eyes.
I can do this.
When I open my eyes again. I'm looking directly at Moretan.
She hovers over the court, her hips swaying from side to side as she waits for me to serve.
She looks focused, ready. Her hands were tightly gripping her racket.
I breathe in deeply.
I can feel my knee twinging slightly. But I don't pay it any attention, it's a future me problem. Plus my knee brace was tied so tightly I'm surprised I've feeling at all in my knee.
