I’m back on the road again after a short holiday with my family and I’m excited to return to action.
A lot has changed for me over the past six months as a result of the success I’ve had on the court.
In life, a lot has changed. It’s the treatment you get at tournaments, whether it’s doing more stuff with the media, officials, organisation, you feel like you’re kind of more special and privileged – they take care of you way more. But it’s something I’m taking very calmly and I’m seeing it as a positive.
I’m working hard for this and I’m not getting too excited. I’m thinking more like this is normal, this is where I want to be, and more importantly this is where I want to stay – to stay and try every single day to keep working and improving.
So on one hand things have changed but on the other, I’m still the same person. I still have the same thoughts and personality – that will never change for me. It’s not because I’m getting higher in the rankings, and maybe in status, that I’m going to change and be more arrogant or not to talk to some people that I used to talk to.
But I can’t deny that it feels different. Players see you differently, when they go out on the court against you, you’re a higher-ranked player, they’re going to feel like they have no pressure, like underdogs, so I feel much more respect from my opponents.
But I’ll never change my personality based on my ranking. That’s absolutely not me, or who I’m ever going to be because I know where I came from. Who I am doesn’t change if I’m like 200 or No1 in the world, I stay the same person.
In my opinion, the most important thing is your personality, that’s what stays, not how many titles you’ve won. Once you’ve finished your tennis career, we’re not going to remember if you won 15 titles or 27 titles on tour. It’s more about your image, what you brought to people and your values. At the end of the day, it’s a job, it’s sport, and the nicest thing that we will miss at the end is this connection, this life.
As athletes we get to be part of many campaigns to promote our sport, or the brands we represent. I was asked recently if promoting women’s sport through sex appeal is positive or negative for our game.
I think it’s important to find a great balance, to send the right message. At the end of the day, we are women and what you want to show is that women can be beautiful in being strong and being athletes. Being beautiful while having muscles, having any kind of body shape, whether you’re curvy or any type of body. We are women so it’s part of our characteristics.
Men also do some commercials like that. Like Rafa Nadal for example, we saw him do a boxer shorts commercial.
So on the women’s side, we can do swimsuit photoshoots, and other things. We are athletes, so either you decide to show a message about body strength, or you show off your body with different kind of brands.
It’s the message you want to communicate, which people you’re addressing, which fans you want to bring to the sport. It’s an important balance, and you have to be smart. Personally, I’m not the one that will push for a provocative way but it’s nice to show off your athletic body, to be classy, elegant, and to maybe attract some women who don’t know about sport and tennis but they know you from the magazines they’re reading and they get interested in what you’re doing.
In my opinion it’s more about keeping an open mind. It’s also part of our job. It’s like this in business. Some can say it’s unfair that brands and sponsors are just going for the good-looking ones. Yes, but a lot of things in life are unfair. Sometimes you just have to accept it and follow. It’s the same for everybody I guess.
*This column was done via an interview with Kristina Mladenovic. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
