Bethanie Mattek-Sands: Shooting from the Hip

Fresh from another excellent showing at this week’s Open GDF Suez Paris Indoors event, Bethanie Mattek-Sands talks to Guy McCrea about her resurgence, why many women practice too much and the future of Fed Cup …

She has always been well known for her fashion statements. But Bethanie Mattek-Sands is now making more people take notice of her results on the tennis court. After she reached a career-high ranking of 37 in 2009, a serious hip injury stalled the American’s progress in a big way as she slid down the list and was forced to qualify for Grand Slam events. Now she is back healthy and has added a semi-final run here at this week’s Paris Indoors to last month’s runner-up finish in Hobart. Close to her career-high rank again, Mattek-Sands thinks she is playing the best tennis of her career: ‘I’m definitely moving better, I’m also much fitter now. Obviously I had a good run at Wimbledon 2008, got a lot of points from that. But consistency-wise I am better now, playing the matches at a higher level.’

The Arizona resident also feels a different approach to her preparations is helping produce these excellent results. ‘I am a little smarter with my time off. A lot of girls practice lots and play stacks of matches. The difference with me is that come the off-season, I put down my rackets, I take a little time off from the gym and just relax. Last year, I took almost three months off. That kind of break refreshes you not only physically but mentally, I actually started to miss the tennis court after a while and so I was excited to then get to Australia and start my season.’

The persistent number of injuries both in the women’s and men’s game is something that Mattek-Sands thinks is attributable not just to teenagers in their early professional years – but actually goes even further back to the junior circuit: ‘Too many women prcatice too much – especially juniors. You’ll see some of them on court six hours a day! If I had my time all over again – as a junior, I wouldn’t play so much. Obviously you have to put in your time but it’s so much more about quality than quantity. So many players just go out there because someone told them to or they think they have to. You can only hit so many forehands – another hour isn’t going to make or break it. What is more important is to mentally work out what will make the shot feel right. That’s what I’d tell any upcoming junior to think about.’

Mattek-Sands remains hugely committed to Fed Cup. She was most recently involved in the United States’ World Group defeat against Belgium. The American sits on the WTA Player Council and admits the current schedule – which allowed no gap between last week’s ties and this week’s WTA events – needs to change. ‘There have been a lot of complaints about it. If you make the final, its three weeks out of your schedule, plus travel time and court surface changes. Then on top of all that there is the emotional drain of the match, whether you’re playing home or away.’

A number of different models for Fed Cup have been suggested. One is to hold the tournament in just one place each year and have all the countries play there at the same time. Another is to attribute WTA ranking points to Fed Cup matches, in a manner similar to Davis Cup. Mattek-Sands understands the clamour for the latter solution, but says even this won’t be straightforward: ‘It’s tough because not everyone gets selected for Fed Cup, so do you just give points to those players who can play? Or do you also have WTA events at the same time as Fed Cup ties for other players who don’t get selected? These are some of the issues that need to be worked out.’

Mattek-Sands will hope to do just that when the WTA Player Council meets during next month’s Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.