Anna Blinkova on Her Team, Season Progress, and Doubles

World No. 76 Russian tennis player Anna Blinkova has revealed the specialists who make up her support team.

– Who is currently on your team? Who supports you at tournaments?

– My tennis coach is Gerard Solves, my fitness coach is Benjamin Valliarello, who isn`t with me this week, and I have a mental coach, Corinne Lafontaine. They are all French.

– Where is your main base located now? Where do you train mostly?

– In Cannes. I forgot to mention, my mental coach Corinne is also my nutritionist.

On April 25th, Blinkova played WTA World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the second round of the WTA 1000 clay court tournament in Madrid, Spain, losing 3/6, 4/6.

– How do you assess this season overall? How is it unfolding for you?

– Little by little. At the start of the year, I defended my points. I believe the most important thing is consistency – to be consistent every week, every tournament, let`s say, every day, and play at my level. And at the end of the year, the ranking is built upon that. I try to show my level every week and work on myself. I really love training and always strive to improve. In matches, I fight, so the beginning of the year has been good for me so far. I played the third round in Miami, had many second rounds and a quarterfinal in Linz. So, I will try not to dwell on the future, not to dwell on results. Because I cannot control the future; I can only control what is happening with me in the present moment. And I always try to stay in the present moment.

– You play doubles actively. These are completely different matches. Do they help you, hinder you, complement something, do you work on specific elements?

– That`s a good question. I don`t always play doubles, not at all tournaments. First of all, it`s physically demanding to play both singles and doubles at every tournament. For example, if I win a singles match in three sets, I like to rest afterward. Of course, I try to play doubles at big tournaments – Grand Slams, `1000s`, and even `500s` if my ranking allows. Because it`s always good practice. I train my serve, returns, volleys, and plus I can earn money. Besides that, I really love doubles. I get a lot of enjoyment, and I really like playing doubles, for example, at Grand Slams. It`s always very pleasant. But, I repeat, I don`t play doubles at smaller tournaments because it`s physically very difficult for me.