Suddenly the Swiss have hope again: the impressive resurrection of Golubic

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It wasn’t that long ago that Viktorija Golubic (31) went weeks without a single win in the main round. From the beginning of January to the end of March, nothing matched anymore, the woman from Zurich flew out of the top 100 in a very short time. In June she was only at position 150. The world rankings mercilessly reflected what had gone wrong in the previous months. Golubic was completely out of shape and was struggling with physical problems.

But now, just in time for the mission to defend her title at the Billie Jean King Cup final in Seville starting next week, the right-handed player’s world looks completely different again. The past few weeks are in stark contrast to those at the beginning of the year: Golubic is already ten matches unbeaten, she won both the ITF 100,000 tournament in Shrewsbury (GB) and the WTA Challenger in Rouen (Fr). And in September she had already triumphed at the ITF 100,000 in Tokyo. How did the sudden explosion in performance come about? Golubic smiles and says: “I can finally trust my body again.” The year was marked by injuries from the knee (patellar tendon) to the shoulder: “I needed time to recover. Both physically and mentally.”

“I like to take the momentum with me”

The fact that since Tokyo she has suddenly become the old “Viki” again, who reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2021 and won Olympic silver in doubles together with Belinda Bencic, has a lot to do with self-confidence: “If I am in shape, I know I can win tournaments at this level.”

In the Billie Jean King Cup, she is suddenly a beacon of hope again, given the sometimes difficult seasons of her teammates. There is a big question mark behind Belinda Bencic (26), who was recently injured. Simona Waltert (22) and Céline Naef (18) are still very young, the latter is there for the first time. And Jil Teichmann (26) also dropped out of the top 100 this year after a lack of results.

Golubic says: “I like to ride the momentum, but I am confident that we can surpass ourselves as a team again. We have shown that often enough.” She is of course right about that: the 2021 final and the sensational 2022 world title prove it.

Source : Blick