Casey Dellacqua‘s disappointment at losing to Jelena Jankovic in the round of 16 at the Australian Open was obvious, although the watershed coming of age week was not lost on the Perth youngster.
“I’ve achieved pretty much all my goals for the whole year in one tournament. So I’m going to have to re-assess a few little things,” Dellacqua said.
“It’s not a bad situation to be in.”
“My rankings are going to be somewhere where I was hoping it to be at the end of the year. It’s going to get me into a lot of bigger tournaments than I had planned on, so I guess I can reschedule my schedule a little bit in terms of which tournaments I’m going to play.”
Dellacqua’s magic week will catapult her in the rankings to become Australia’s highest ranked woman. The prize money for reaching the fourth round, in excess of $82,000, will also come in handy.
“Obviously financially it’s a great benefit and a great reward for this week. I guess I’ll pick up my prize money tomorrow and probably get a bit of a shock.”
Any ideas on what to splurge on?
“The Monaro is still an option. I’d love a red one, a fiery red one.”
Before you could be excused think Casey is going down the path of so many young, wasteful athletes, the 22 year old set the record straight. There are better things to do with new found money than plough into expensive cars.
“I always did say if I did get my first big check that I would donate just a little bit to my favourite charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.”
The match with Jankovic will be a source of frustration. Dellacqua broke the world number 3’s serve three times in the first set, however the Australian was also broken on three occasions, before suffering from nerves in the breaker.
“I actually was a little bit more nervous tonight.”
Dellacqua always seemed to be playing catch up. Despite losing the first set, the momentum had shifted away from Jankovic, who bombed a 5-2 lead, twice failing to serve out the set. Experience was telling though and the Serbian pounced on the rookie, quickly opening a 3-0 lead in the second set to effectively see off the contest.
“I think I hit probably a few too many unforced errors off my forehand side. I felt like she targeted that,’ Dellacqua said.
“Playing Schnyder and Mauresmo, the ball sat up a bit. Tonight it came through quite quickly, different than what I was used to.
“In the second set, I thought she stepped it up a little bit, as well. I kind of fell off the scales a little bit.
Australia has not only got to know Casey in the last week, but also Casey’s breast cancer surviving mum and ‘Nan’, who were in full voice in the stands. Nan once again had a carefully placed Australian flag sitting on her head. The 22 year old revealed she hadn’t had an opportunity to spend much time with her grandmother in the last week. These new found demands eating in to her time.
“I’m looking forward to going and seeing my Nan, giving her a big hug, having a chat with her, sitting down over a cup of tea.”
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