Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Andrea Sestini Hlavácková | Tennis 10sBalls

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

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“I had two very different experiences from the Olympic Games. London was unexpected and basically last minute. My partner and I just got there, played and suddenly we ended up with a silver medal. It was so random and absolutely life changing. Then the second experience was in Rio, where we came in as huge favorites for a gold medal. Suddenly everyone’s talking about you, there’s pressure from the media and our team pushed to stick together and prepare for Olympic Games again. We managed to get all the way through to the semifinals. We had two match points and on the second one I was hit in the eye and the ball broke my orbital bone. I needed a 15 minute break and then we went back to play. We lost the match and I spent whole night in the hospital until 6:00 AM. The next day at 2:00 PM we had to fight for a bronze medal against other Czech girls. It was Czech against Czech, which is never an easy situation. We lost that match. I could see out of my eye but I was very scared. I had tape on my face which kind of pushed down the swolleness, but it was a little bit blurry. Throughout my whole career, I felt like every time I wanted something too badly and I put huge importance on it, it rarely went as planned. When I just went with the flow, suddenly great things came. Both of my Grand Slam titles were won when I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue with my partner. It wasn’t easy when I transitioned to only doubles. I truly had to change my perception. I believe you see yourself the way you look at others. I always thought just doubles players didn’t work hard enough until I became one. You begin to accept the people who don’t understand what you’re doing, but I had to work hard enough to beat the singles players who play doubles. I didn’t truly start having the life I wanted until 25, when I broke into the top 100. Until then I was sleeping at airports like the typical challenger grind, which is suffering no one wants to be a part of…” @andreasestinihlavackova
To continue reading the full story go to behindtheracquet.com

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You can follow Andrea Sestini Hlavácková on the links below:

Facebook | Andrea Sestini Hlavackova

Twitter | @AndreaHlavackov

Instagram | @andreasestinihlavackova

You can check out more Behind The Racquet stories on the link below:

Facebook | Behind The Racquet

Twitter | @BehindTRacquet

Instagram | @behindtheracquet