In Albuquerque, the tennis community bared all to see the return of a tennis favourite in Nicole Vaidisova; the Czech player who made two semi-finals at Grand Slam level as a teenager finally returned after a four year absence from the sport.
Back in 2010 she announced her retirement from the sport due to ‘lack of interest’ in tennis altogether but, having divorced from her long term husband Radek Stepanek in 2013, she now feels it’s the right time to take to the court to give her career a second try.
As a young teen many will remember her for her matches at Wimbledon, including that match where she failed to convert three match points and eventually lost in the quarter finals to now resurgent Ana Ivanovic.
Her opponent – a former prodigy like herself – who goes by the name of Sesil Karatantcheva, is currently ranked just inside the Top 200 but has featured in the Top 100 in her career; she’s a relevant and necessary player to be pitted against in Nicole Vaidisova’s first match on the circuit in nearly five years.
Nicole started off with an error-strewn game which resulted in her being broken but many elements remained the same. Remembered for her trademark Reebok clothing, she donned the same in Albuquerque; Lady in Red. Her affiance to Yonex racquet company remained the same as the Czech took to the court with Yonex in hand. The first set contained many a racquet toss and near enough a smash as she frustratingly found her feet back on a tennis court; significantly she came through, beating the Kazakh 6-3, 6-4.
Her serve was very good for someone that hasn’t hit a tennis ball for a sustained period of time and her backhand was near enough identical to the shot that follows through pretty much similar to that of Venus Williams in the All England Club of SW19. Vaidisova’s movement wasn’t as consistent as you’d expect from someone a few tiers higher on the WTA circuit but generally she rallied well against a player that beat a Top 100 player in Kiki Mladenovic in a WTA tour level event in Quebec City, just a week ago. So there’s massive signs of progress already in just an hour or so of tennis.
Below is a link to the full match to Nicole Vaidisova’s comeback, she features again on Thursday.
http://new.livestream.com/tempuztennis/events/3381882/videos/62262801
With no sign of former hubby Radek Stepanek in sight, maybe this is the time Nicole Vaidisova gets to put things right after a blossoming career. At just 25 years of age she still has time but one thing she has to do to make it to the higher echelons of the sport is to finally rediscover her love for the game of tennis.
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