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I thought this was the most appropriate time to speak about my interview with top ten WTA player Kiki Bertens in Summer, as yesterday she replaced Naomi Osaka in the year end Shisedo WTA Finals Shenzhen as the alternate, when Osaka was forced to pull out with a shoulder injury.
Kiki was someone I interviewed briefly whilst working the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne back in June, as her story of having her best ever season after being at such a low point mentally during the 2017 off season that she was going to quit tennis has always inspired me, and I knew it was one worth sharing in my documentary.
The timing seems perfect now because one of the things I aim to highlight as a factor that may be taking its toll on the mental wellbeing of tennis players is the length of the season for pro players, about 10-11 months. A few weeks ago for my three minute pitch in which I proposed this radio documentary idea to my supervisor and second marker I created a calendar style schedule for Kiki Bertens as my handout, which you can see above, to highlight just how long the season is for tennis players and how many tournaments they play in one year. It was created prior to the WTA tournament in Linz which was played earlier this month, and at the time it appeared as though Kiki would either qualify for the WTA Finals in Shenzhen or the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, as players can't play both. After narrowly missing out on a spot at the year end finals, Kiki played in Zhuhai and made it all the way to the final on Sunday, which was the last match of her season. On Monday she flew to Shenzhen to be the first alternate at the WTA Finals, and had to fulfil that position yesterday after Osaka's withdrawal.
This has been an extraordinary case - players do not play both events, and this now makes it the 8th week in a row that Kiki has played since the US Open ended almost two months ago. She is the tour leader in match wins for 2020 - now well over fifty - and this just shows how long players must stay on the road away from home during the year to keep up their pro career.
Below is a link to a snippet of what Kiki said to me in June, stay tuned for my full documentary release in mid December to hear the rest of our interview and to learn more about Kiki Bertens' incredible story.
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