Tennis: recent weeks have stressed out Tímea Babos

Tímea Babos lost in the second round of the Roland Garros qualifiers, so for the first time since 2014, there will be no Hungarian women's tennis player in singles in the main draw in Paris. The MTK athlete's preparations didn't go smoothly, since she was infected by the coronavirus in Aprila and the disease forced her to fight harder than expected. For weeks after the recovery, her heart rate soared above 190 during warm-ups.

„It wasn't easy to get over what happened – Babos sighed. – My preparation was going pretty well, but the big problem is that I can play a few singles. It appears in important moments when I don't necessarily make the best decisions. My performance has improved a lot, though. Obviously, I still have some deficiencies, and I always will, but overall, I'm moving forward in my game and my physical condition, which I'm happy about.”

Babos revealed that in the first qualification round, she was very nervous against her Chinese opponent You Xiaodi who played in an unpleasant style. However, she was able to win, but then in the second match, she couldn't succeed against Croatia's Ana Konjuh despite playing better.

"The unfairness of the draw is that I get such tough opponents... – the 28-year-old player said. – The last time I started in Belgrade was with Nadia Podorosk of Argentina, who was a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year. Then came Ana Konjuh in Paris, who I think is by far the best tennis player of the non-seeded ones; she reached the finals in Belgrade. It's especially bad luck that I was standing as the first waiter, which means I would've been on the main draw if anyone had backed out before the qualifiers started. No one had backed out then, but some have since, so there will be a lucky loser from the third qualifying round who gets on the main draw... Going back to my match: it was great in terms of tennis, but I also felt against Konjuh that the past few weeks have stressed me out mentally.”

Babos will play doubles with Vera Zvonareva of Russia in Paris, but she won't play mixed doubles with Márton Fucsovics because he rejected her idea. (The other Russian, Veronika Kudermetova, will play with Elena Vesnina because of her country's federation's pressure.) At Wimbledon, she plays again with French player, Kristina Mladenović, with whom she has won four Grand Slam tournaments, including the last two Roland Garros. Earlier this season; however, "Kiki" announced that she wouldn't be playing doubles in 2021 to focus on her singles career. She then paired up with Czech Marketa Vondroušová in Rome.

" It was weird that she was playing doubles, but because so much bad has happened recently, I didn't care about that in particular, added Babos, who has until mid-June to decide with whom she'll play doubles in Tokyo.– I have ideas, but nothing is certain yet. In recent weeks, several girls such as Réka Jani, Dalma Gálfi, and Anna Bondár, have played well. We'll see. I'm trying to come out of the slump for now...”

Translated by Orosz Vanda.