Italian Sara Errani is a Grand Slam finalist and reached a career-high singles ranking of No.5 in 2013. She’s an outstanding doubles player too, having won a career Grand Slam alongside compatriot Roberta Vinci and spent 87 weeks at No.1 between 2012-2015.
This year she returned to Hobart, where she is a former doubles champion and singles semifinalist, for the first time since 2012 with the intention of regaining the form that took her to such heights. But that plan was derailed by a left thigh injury, which forced the 29-year-old to withdraw from singles and hand a walkover to her quarterfinal opponents in the doubles draw.
Before Errani left for her 10th Australian Open campaign, we asked her to finish these sentences…
My goal for 2017 is… to give it my best.
The best lesson I learnt in 2016 was… to keep fighting.
I love being a tennis player because… I can compete and do what I love.
The hardest part of being a tennis player is… having to deal with luggage and packing.
The best advice I’ve ever been given is… to not have regrets.
If I could steal one shot from another player it would be… the serve of Serena (Williams).
My dream mixed doubles partner is… (Rafael) Nadal.
My go-to karaoke song is… (laughs) none. I’m a really bad singer.
My best memory from Australia is… we went to the big beach (Bondi Beach) in Sydney last year. It was really nice.
I think Hobart is… really quiet, but it’s really nice to be here. I love Australia.