The day opens at the Ariake Tennis Pak with a ball bearing the signature of Sara Sorribes.
The 24-year-old Spaniard, in full professional growth, points to her arms and legs a couple of times while conversing with the special envoys to Tokyo.
“You see, I still have goose bumps.
This is amazing. "
In the first round of the tournament she has just got off the number one, Ashleigh Barty, on another day in which fire falls on the stunned concrete of the enclosure, to the point that another ball boy has had to leave the track leaning on a teammate, victim of another heat stroke.
"But I'm used to it," she says smiling and red as a tomato, freckled and happy after 6-4 and 6-3 (in 1h 34m) that gives her the greatest reward of her career.
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It's his big day.
Last year she already beat Naomi Osaka on the sand of La Manga, in a series of the Federation Cup, but this is the most important notch of her career.
“She is the best, for sure.
For the place, for who is the rival, for being the Games and for all that it means to me to play for Spain.
I like playing as a team a lot and it gives me extra motivation ”, he continues after a well-cooked match against Barty, who hits his cheek over and over again because he tries and tries, but there is no way.
There, behind that 1.80 floor and defined physiognomy, there is a wall, a player who does not wrinkle and who, as soon as she sees the slightest opportunity, attacks.
“I have tried not to think about who she was, what she has achieved, how great she is and how talented she is. I was just focused on mine, on each ball. I have failed a little and I had things very clear all the time, "continues the 48th in the world, who as a teenager was launching ads - at the age of 14 she became the youngest Spaniard to win a point on the WTA circuit - and then he progressed step by step, silently toward maturity. “Perhaps this year he is collecting the fruits of all those seeds that he was sowing in previous seasons. This responds to many years of effort. It is not by chance ”, remarks for EL PAÍS his coach, Silvia Soler.
Step by step, Sorribes is becoming a respected tennis player, the kind with whom it is not at all desirable to meet on a court.
“They know that she is tough, that she is never going to give up.
This year she is daring to take one more step and to be a little more courageous ”, highlights the technique while she, inflated like a balloon and at the same time prudent, continues to shape a season in which she is consolidating her level jump.
He started the year leaving clues and linking good results.
In March he achieved his first title on the professional circuit, in Guadalajara (Mexico), and also obtained notable results such as the semifinals in Hamburg and Monterrey, or the quarterfinals in Miami and Abu Dhabi.
Village and seamless
In 2013, interviewed by this newspaper during her junior years, she said in the Caja Mágica in Madrid that she dreamed of winning Roland Garros and that she was inspired by the warrior spirit of Alicante's David Ferrer. "She is a born fighter, very solid, and every time she is incorporating more things into her game," appreciates Soler. “She is creative, she likes the big stages and is motivated when she plays for Spain. Sara is a fight and dedication, and she likes to go to close the plays to the net. Little by little he is giving giant passes. It is very complete and very stable. It would stand out above all that: it does not have a point to enter it ”, portrays the trainer.
After these arguments comes the victory against Barty, who despite saving two match balls ends up bowing.
“For me, the dream of my life was to be here.
No more.
And if on top of that you beat number one… ”, she sums up, a humble girl from La Vall d'Uxó (Castellón), just 10 kilometers from the Mediterranean water, who continues to consider herself the same one who learned to play tennis at the town.
"With eyes and ears wide open, predisposed," concludes Soler.
"I have simply been focused on each ball, on not going beyond what each ball brought me, because if I had gone a little further, surely I would not have achieved anything," he concludes after giving the bell.
CARLA AND GARBIÑE, BY THE HAND
The success of Sara Sorribes in the opening of the day was later joined by Carla Suárez, who recovered from the doubles played the previous day with Garbiñe Muguruza and achieved a commendable victory (6-4 and 6-1, after 61 minutes) against Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who recently shone on the grass at Wimbledon.
In the next round, the 31-year-old from the Canary Islands, who is enjoying her fourth Olympic experience, will face Czech Karolina Pliskova (6-4 and 6-3 against Alize Cornet).
The day before, the Catalan Paula Badosa obtained the pass, who faces the Polish Iga Swaitek this Monday. Meanwhile, Garbiñe Muguruza resolved his demanding debut against Veronika Kudermetova, with a double 7-5 (in 2h 02m).
Conversely, Pablo Andújar and Roberto Carballés, who had already been eliminated in the singles, lost against Lorenzo Sonego and Lorenzo Mussetti (7-5 and 6-4) and also said goodbye to doubles.
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