This week on The First Serve, host Brett Phillips recapped the first days play at Roland Garros and was joined by Nicole Pratt, who's headed up Australian womens tennis in recent years, experienced tennis coach Stefan Woolley, CEO of Tennis Victoria Ruth Holdaway as well as Peter Carew, the president of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.
Nicole Pratt, who's headed up womens tennis in Australia in recent years spoke about Daria Gavrilova's comeback to grand slam tennis after she made it through to the second round of Roland Garros.
"One of Dasha's greatest qualities is her competitiveness and her grit, I think she just lost a little bit of that desire and the hunger that she'd had when she was up around her highest ranking, that was sort of born out of injury more than anything else. The time away has given her some great perspective. For me personally, I've really enjoyed actually working back with Dasha when she's been back here in Melbourne all through the COVID period. I'm really pleased for her and especially the team, it's really pleasing to see that and she was certainly excited.
I think it's going to be just a step by step process for Dasha. She's coming from a long way back in regards to the rankings but she will have her protected ranking that's going to allow her entry into about ten events on the WTA tour and then hopefully she might be fortunate enough with some wildcards during the Australian summer. Movement for her is the most important thing so she needs to stay healthy. She's evolved in regards to we've done a lot of work on her backhand, and that was an area that people were looking to take advantage of and I feel like the work that she's done, its really improved. Her serve probably let her down over the last 12 months and that's an area that also she's spent a lot of time and work on and she's feeling really confident with that. Step by step, she is one of the best movers, competitors out there whens she's in the right frame of mind. I just hope she can keep that consistency and new found maturity," Pratt said.
Experienced tennis coach Stefan Woolley joined the show to talk about why he believes a petition is needed for the return of tennis in Victoria.
"Tennis Australia, Tennis Victoria and even other clubs have been so successful getting to that stage of Dan Andrews even mentioning tennis in the press conference. I guess we're a bit surprised that we weren't aligned with personal training with this reopening. Maybe from a community stand point, showing that we have a COVID safe plan and we're naturally socially distanced, it will show as a community how it actually impacts us as a whole. Maybe those numbers might play some dividends in getting us through," Woolley said.
CEO of Tennis Victoria Ruth Holdaway joined the show to provide us with an update on the discussions she's had with the key bodies who have the final say regarding the return of tennis in Victoria.
Peter Carew, the president of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club also joined the show to chat about the progression of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club's renovations during the COVID period.
Make sure to tune into the full edition of the show to catch the full interviews with Nicole Pratt, Stefan Woolley, Ruth Holdaway and Peter Carew.
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