Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Ekaterina Makarova | Tennis 10sBalls

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

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“I never think that I should be playing another sport but the long year of tennis is exhausting. Other sports have two-three months off to use as a break. I understand that other sports may push their players harder during the short seasons but there is no way they are put in the same amount of stressful situations as tennis players are. It’s tough to say because very few of us have played other sports at this level. Looking at the other side it might be extremely nerve-racking knowing you have to do well in a shorter amount of time rather than having the chance to play every week. We just don’t know, I can only speak about tennis. After the Olympics in 2016, all other sports went on holiday, to relax and recover, some for even over a year. Some girls from home, in synchronized swimming, rested for two years and then began preparing for the next Olympics. For the tennis players, it’s totally different since we had to fly to the US Open the next day. Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy. The travel is really one of the toughest parts of tennis. I remember before the Rio Olympics in 2016 we were coming from Montreal. Our plane had many issues so we were stuck. We soon found out that all other tickets were sold out. It was a Monday when we were supposed to fly out but we ended up getting out of the U.S on Wednesday evening. We were extremely nervous because all airlines were telling us that the next available flights were not until Friday, with our first match at the Olympics being on Saturday. These are the stressful situations that tennis players deal with all the time. We managed to sneak on a plane in economy after spending six hours on this line. I told my partner Elena Vesnina, ‘If this is the worst that happens to us on our way to our dream , then I’ll take it.’” –Ekaterina Makarova

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You can follow Ekaterina Makarova on the links below:

Facebook | Ekaterina Makarova

Twitter | @katemakarova1

Instagram | @katemakarova1

You can check out more Behind The Racquet stories on the link below:

Facebook | Behind The Racquet

Twitter | @BehindTRacquet

Instagram | @behindtheracquet