By Bessie Recep

Our I Support Women in Sport campaign aims to recognise female athletes, so if there’s one sport we take our white visor off to, it’s tennis. Female tennis players now earn equal prize money to the fellas and get top billing in events and media the world over. Australia’s shining star, Sam Stosur, will be fronting up at Wimbledon this June with the hope of maintaining her career-high number 5 world ranking. With big name sponsors like Lacoste, McCain, Jetstar and Oakley, Sam is arguably Australia’s top sportswoman – yep, she’s made it. But there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that’s propelled her from hitting tennis balls in her Adelaide backyard aged 8 to the grass courts of Wimbledon. We caught up with Sam and her entourage before they headed to the UK.

DREAM BIG

“When I was nine, my parents took the whole family to the ’93 Australian Open women’s final. We watched my two favourite players, [Steffi] Graf and [Monica] Seles, battle it out. I still look up to them. They were the best in the world and dominated women’s tennis for a long time. I admired their playing styles and great rivalry; I knew it was what I wanted to do. It became a dream – I didn’t have an either-or, it was when – when am I going to make it?”

BACK YOURSELF

“In the last four or five years in women’s tennis, there’s been a huge shift to catching up to the guys, starting with equal prize money – eventually we got it [in 2007]. Tennis is probably the biggest women’s sport in the world – there are just as many people watching the women’s matches as the men’s. Hopefully everyone follows the trend, whether in the form of money, sponsorship or coverage.”

The Fitness Trainer: Narelle Sibte

Sibte has been providing Sam with strength and conditioning support since March 2010. “Sam’s got a great physique but we’re constantly looking at improving her power-to-weight ratio so she can out-hit her competitors.”

Here, how they do it:

- “I set two cones 10 metres apart and have Sam sprint up and back four times – she should be covering 40 metres in under 10 seconds. She’ll then have a 20-second rest, before doing a set of six. This is followed by a two-minute rest and another six to eight sets. It’s a really tough session but we go beyond what would be anticipated on court, so Sam knows she’s ‘been there, done that’. Any experience on the court should be a walk in the park compared to the preparation, so training should always be harder than matches – that way you can enjoy a lot of success rather than battling your way through.”

- Want to train like Sam Stosur? Get her sample workout here

AIM HIGHER

“Do I feel like I’ve made it? Yeah, I can say I’ve fulfilled my dream of being a tennis player and making it my life. There are definitely further things I want to achieve before I retire. It's funny, but the more success you have, the more you want – moving up the rankings or doing better at big tournaments quickly turns into motivation and drive to do even better.”

BE PREPARED FOR TOUGH TIMES, TOO

“Defeat can be hard to swallow. Sometimes I can walk off court and tell myself it was a great match and that I played well, but other times I know I let myself down and didn’t do what I needed to get the win – and that’s when it hurts most. After the French Open final [against Francesca Schiavone in 2010], I felt absolutely gutted. It took me a while to realise that I actually didn’t do too much wrong and that it wasn’t through my bad play or bad decision making that led me to losing. Now, I can accept that on that day she played better than me and absolutely went for it and it paid off – she took the bigger risk and got the reward.”

The Manager: Paul Kilderry

What’s your job?

“I’m responsible for Sam’s life away from the court, from contracts to media and sponsorship commitments to travel and hotel bookings. I know her schedule implicitly. I’ll even schedule her downtime if she needs it. She leaves home in February, comes back for a few weeks in July, then comes back at the end of October; she’s away nine months of the year so I like to give her a break and let her recharge.”

How has Stosur's success affected your relationship? “Personally we’ve become great friends – we’re in communication several times every day. Professionally it’s evolved greatly – my job’s become a lot busier and there are more opportunities. When I started with her three years ago, it was me writing to companies trying to get them to support her; now it’s the opposite.”

KEEP SOME SECRETS

“I watched an interview with [Rafael] Nadal recently and he was asked why he doesn’t share much about his private life; he said he lets his tennis do the talking, and it’s the same with me. I don’t venture out to parties or try to rub shoulders with celebrities.”

KNOW YOUR BODY

“If I’m going into comp mode, I’ll do an hour-and-a-half of on-court practice, followed by an hour-long gym session in the afternoon, every day. If I feel run-down, I'll skip a session or take that day off. Over the years I’ve become more in-tune with my body and know when not to push myself. I’m not strict with my diet, either; I have a weakness for French fries! I’m sensible, but not fanatical.”

FIND THE UPSIDE

“In 2007, I had a career-threatening illness called Lyme disease. You get it from being bitten by a deer tick – and to this day I don’t know how I got it! It took its toll and I ended up spending nearly 10 months out of the game. It gave me time to reflect on my career and turned out to be a positive thing – my career has skyrocketed since. I talk to my coach Dave about it even now – we don’t know what may have happened otherwise. Maybe I would have kept going along the same path, still waiting for that breakthrough.”

Taylor has been publicly credited with turning around Stosur’s career. He’s also a former coach of Martina Hingis, Ana Ivanovic and Alicia Molik.

“Before a match, we talk tactics – the best way to address nerves is to replace any sort of emotional thought with a tactical one. I break up tactics into three categories – what to do in your service game, what to do in your return games, and general tactics. We go over them the night before, then on the day before warming up for 45 minutes. Sam likes to warm up early so about three hours before she goes on court she’ll do her hitting. Then 15 minutes before she goes on, we’ll do a 10-minute physical and hand-eye coordination warm-up. Thirty seconds before she goes on, I’ll repeat the most important tactic. [They] change depending on the opponent and stage of the tournament.”

“Sam trains six days a week – 11 sessions of tennis and five sessions of fitness. I do 90 per cent of hitting with her, and 10 per cent of the time she’ll hit with another player. She has a day off each week – or more if she needs. My philosophy is quality, not quantity – rarely do we go over 90 minutes a session but those sessions are very intense. There are four grand slams a year, but Sam plays a total of 22 tournaments and every one is scheduled to help her prepare for the grand slams. She’ll always have the week off prior to a grand slam, and she’ll play for three weeks prior to that on the same surface with similar balls to get used to the conditions and climate."

FOCUS ON THE WIN

“I’ve ditched superstitions. If I was going well in a tournament, I usedto eat at the same restaurant the night before each match. At the 2009 French Open I wore the same match outfit every single day. I had it in my head that I had to keep doing it or I wasn’t going to win so, every night I’d have to wash it and leave it to dry. It drove me nuts by the end. Thankfully, I’m not like that anymore. Now I'll put that extra energy into my game. I didn’t win the tournament, so clearly it had nothing to do with it!”

The Sponsor: Christophe Chenut

As CEO of Lacoste, Stosur's French clothing sponsor since January 2009, it’s part of Chenut's job to find the perfect ambassadors for the brand. So, why did they choose Stosur?
“She shares the same values as the brand and its founder René Lacoste – tenacity, performance and elegance, but mostly a big heart,” he says. As well as providing financial support, part of Lacoste’s role is to supply Stosur with clothing for on and off court – “comfortable outfits which allow her to perform well during her matches, as well as everyday wear. Our main priority is to let Sam focus on her tennis while being elegant on court.”

Stosur making the French Open final last year was a coup for the brand. “It was the first time a female Lacoste player reached this level in tennis.” Legend.

JUST BE YOURSELF

“My critics are probably right – I’m quite serious on court and don’t display much emotion. But it’s not a tactic, it’s just what comes naturally as I go into match mode. There are times when I wish I could loosen up a bit or show more emotion – maybe that’s something I can look to improve in my game. Away from the court, nothing much bothers me; I don’t take myself too seriously and I love to have a joke.”

CHANNEL THE JOY

“The best advice I’ve ever received is to always enjoy what I’m doing; if you don’t, there’s no point doing it. A number of people have told me that, including my dad and Dave. I’ve never not enjoyed tennis – there’s obviously been times when it’s hard but I’ve never, ever felt I don’t want to do this anymore. Even as a child, I never felt like quitting or didn’t think I wasn’t good enough.”

Sam has her big brother to thank for getting her start in tennis – it was Daniel who convinced their parents to take her to lessons. Today the casino supervisor plays the role of number one fan.

Daniel on...Discovering her talent “I think everybody in close contact with Sam knew there was something special [about her]. She looked different to the young girls who were playing, and was beating girls who were a lot older. There was something that made her stand out.”

The disappointments “I [had] a conversation with Sam post losing to Serena Williams after having match point. She was devastated to say the least. I told her that her time will come and to trust herself. I think she knows she’s good but it’s a matter of constantly reminding herself that she’s got the talent and drive.”