The Italian French Open winner dismisses talk of being a late bloomer and says she has timed her peak perfectly Two weeks ago Francesca Schiavone walked off the Philippe Chatrier court at Roland Garros transformed from a 29-year-old tennis journeywoman into the French Open champion and Italy’s inaugural female winner of a tennis major. Schiavone’s record at grand slams had been modest, with only quarter-final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open in her 12-year professional career. Ranked 17th in Paris she had not been favoured against Sam Stosur, the Australian who had beaten her the previous year in the opening round on the way to the semi-final. Yet Schiavone, who is from Milan, beat Stosur 6-4, 7-6. On Wednesday the Italian turns 30. Yet she is phlegmatic regarding her late flowering when asked the obvious question. “Everybody asks about my age, about arriving late,” she says. “Late? From where? Maybe late for you, maybe late for another person. But I think it was the time for me, 29 years old. When you are 29, or 32, why not? Everybody talks about when you’re 20, they say you want everything now, in this moment. But it’s not like this. Everybody is different. I’m different.” Pressed, Schiavone elaborates a little, saying ambition did not take hold until she was a teenager. “When I was seven I didn’t think of becoming a champion tennis player,” she says. “When I was 16 years old I was at high school and practised for two hours in the afternoon, so it’s bit different when maybe your friends, or your parents, or your school say: ‘Yes, you have quality, so you can work on it. Start early.’ Sometimes you start later, but not late for you – maybe late for the system, but everybody is different.” Schiavone, who is now ranked sixth in the world and faces the Russian No47 Vera Dushevina in the opening round of next week’s Wimbledon, is still adjusting to the demands of becoming a champion. “Something has changed,” she says. “I stayed in Italy for three or four days [after winning in Paris]. I did many press and TV interviews. That was tough. It was new, so I had to learn how to organise myself, to be sitting talking in front of 300 or 400 people. “I had a big party in Paris. The second was when I arrived home. I went to my parents’ house, which is in a really small town [Passerano]. I grew up in Milan, but during the summer I always went up into the hills, to my mother’s house. The town is small, just 1,000 people. And there were 1,000 people at the front of my house and in my garden. It was fantastic, really big emotions.” Her victory also touched prominent Italians, including Marcello Lippi, who watched her victory and subsequently declared that Schiavone embodied their nation’s spirit. “Marcello Lippi is very hard and very focused all the time,” she says of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach, who is back in charge of the national team. “If he enjoyed my tennis he must have really chosen to do so. Massimo Moratti, the Inter president [also sent a message], so that was an honour for me. But if I receive SMS messages from friends, people who don’t necessarily know me, that’s the same.” Last year Schiavone reached the quarter-finals in SW19 for the first time. This year she hopes to improve. “I’ll try to do better. It’s not easy. Nothing is free, nothing is easy. I always have to prepare well for every tournament, for every match. On grass you have to be really healthy and strong. I think in some days I will recover my energies and I’ll be good and ready to play a good Wimbledon. I can’t say more.” Wimbledon Tennis Jamie Jackson guardian.co.uk
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Francesca Schiavone settles into unfamiliar demands of a champion
