Reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals proved two things to Timea Bacsinszky. One was how far she had come over the past 12 months. The second was how much more upside she has.
The Swiss star, arguably the biggest improver in the women’s game in the last year, had just lost 7-5, 6-3 to Garbine Muguruza in a compelling battle in the last eight.
It was her first time at that stage of the tournament. One of the few times she had made a foray onto a big show court at the All England Club. And it was an experience she had soaked in.
“If I compare this to my last year's experience, how I reacted on court, on my second round against Maria (Sharapova), where everything was too much for me, and now I am where I am,” she said.
“Today I stood up strong. I tried to give my best. Well, even if it didn't happen for me to get the win, I know I made just a huge improvement. So I'm really glad about this Wimbledon. I'm already looking forward to coming back next year.”
That match – a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2014 – did nothing to foreshadow what would come in the following months on tour. She was barely in the top 100 at that time, yet would go on to win 14 of her next 20 matches and finish the season inside the top 50. The highlight of that stretch was a revenge win over Sharapova in Wuhan, a WTA Premier-level event at which she progressed to the quarters.
In 2015, she has been even more dominant. She opened the season with a final in Shenzhen before winning back-to-back titles in Acapulco and Monterrey. Next came a quarter-final finish in Indian Wells and a breakout Grand Slam result at Roland Garros, where she came within a whisker of beating Serena Williams in the semi-finals. Then came Wimbledon.
She is 36-8 on the year, ninth in the Race to the WTA Finals in Singapore, and a player nobody wants to face in the draw.
I think I'm really on a good track. We can hopefully still write some nice tennis history...
It has been quite the year. Especially so when you consider what has transpired earlier in her career. The victim of a controlling father who had pushed her into tennis, the Swiss walked away from the game and pursued her dream career in hospitality, before in 2013 giving tennis one last crack – yet this time on her own terms.
This approach, as well as working with a psychologist, has helped Bacsinszky find inner peace and calm on the court and a greater pleasure in playing.
“I never wanted to be a tennis player. It happened that I was just playing too good at a certain point. I had no choice. My dad wasn't OK with me to being a waitress, obviously,” she revealed after her fourth-round victory over Monica Niculescu.
“But for me, it's the joy of being able to compete. I just love the game. No matter where I am, whether it's the first round, Marrakech where the courts are terrible, or if it's somewhere else or in Wimbledon or in the US, in Cincinnati, or wherever I am, it's really the love of the game.”
Some of the emotional scars remain. She said she was “fighting with my old demons” in her three-set victory over Niculescu; it left her drained for her match against Muguruza on Tuesday.
“At the end, it's part of a Grand Slam. I'm going to work in the future to be able, even if I lose a lot of energy in one day, to be able to raise my level more the next day,” she said.
Timea Bacsinszky
Managing energy levels is a significant part of the life of an elite player. Having risen to world No.15, Bacsinszky can now count herself among that upper echelon. She has already recognised the importance of remaining mentally fresh, withdrawing from her scheduled Wimbledon lead-in events after her deep run at the French Open. She believes the decision contributed to her excellent result at the All England Club this fortnight.
Bacsinszky is still learning. Still adapting. Still healing. It is therefore a rather eye-popping prospect to consider how good she can actually be. “I think I'm just really on a great track,” she said. “All those wins of this year are showing us, my team, that we're really working on a good way, that we can hopefully still write some nice tennis history, not only for Switzerland, but, yeah, for us.”
