WTA: Olympic champion Monica Puig back in training
The Puerto Rican Monica Puig wants to know again after more than a year of injury-related tennis abstinence.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Nov 29, 2021, 02:27 pm
Monica Puig's performance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is probably one of the most beautiful tennis fairy tales of the recent past: The 23-year-old, who was not placed at the time, struggled with clear second set successes over players like Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbine Muguruza and Laura Siegemund In the semifinals, Petra Kvitova relegated to her place in three rounds and then defeated Angelique Kerber 6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 1 in the final.
Seldom has a gold medal come as a surprise at an Olympic tennis tournament. The unstoppable descent after this high-altitude flight also followed on the foot. Anyone who thought that the Puerto Rican would pursue equally great successes was on the wrong boat. Rather, Puig established herself as a player in the years to come, bobbing around 50th and 60th place in the WTA ranking with small ups and downs.
Protected ranking is ready
After the French Open last autumn, the now 28-year-old took a complete break from broadcasting. Serious problems on the shoulder caused the islander to go under the knife. Two more interventions on the joint followed as well as an extensive break in training. During the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Puig worked as an expert on the sports platform ESPN.
Now, however, the time seems to have come to get back into training: The right-hander recently posted pictures of an OnCourt unit on Instagram, with the most important message for all fans: "I'm back!" Admittedly, the applied handbrake can still be clearly identified during the careful strokes, but a start has been made. When Puig exactly wants to return to the WTA tour was still open. It is clear, however, that it will be able to fall back on a protected ranking.