( Translation from http://www.canarias7.es/impresa/articulo.cfm?Id=1330849 (10/04/2006))

"I face the season with many hopes"

This 27-year-old Canarian player became the number 19 in the WTA rankings. An injury in her left shoulder hasn't let María Luisa Serna play in almost one year, now she comes back with renewed hopes and looking forward to showing that she can still offer some good tennis.

Q: Where has Magüi Serna been during these last months?

A: I played my last tournament in April 2005. I just had to stop due to an injury in my left shoulder, and until October I didn't touch a tennis racket again. From then, I started to train again to see how the shoulder was going after such a long rehabilitation.

Q: Not long ago you played a tournament after a long time. How did you feel?

A: It was three weeks ago in Telde. The shoulder was fine, although I have to wait until I take part in some matches to see if it really supports a continued effort. I was really surprised at having reached the final, because I didn't expect to do so well. I expected to feel much worse. I felt really comfortable on the court in spite of not having competed for such a long time.

Q: How do you face the rest of the season?

A: With many hopes after having seen how well things went in my first tournament. Although you don't want to, in spite of having been inactive for a year, it would have been all uphill if I hadn't done well in this new start.

Q: Is it taking you much to reach the level you had before getting injured?

A: I couldn't say yet because I haven't played at a better level in which I can compare myself to the top 100 players. At the beginning of May I am going to play the tournament in Estoril, which is a WTA tournament, and where I think I'll be able to see my real level at the moment.

Q: Almost a year without using the racket. You would be looking forward to coming back to the courts, wouldn't you?.

A: A lot. As the saying says, you don't know what you have till you lose it. When I was injured, the weeks went by and I could only think that at that moment I would be at Wimbledon or at the US Open or at any other competition. I even missed speaking in English, because my best friends are an Australian and an American players.

Q: How does a sportsperson live those moments in which she can't compete due to physical problems?

A: You feel terrible. In my case the worst moment was the first month because I was used to a very busy life during ten years, the whole day training and travelling. It's a big change of rhythm. At the beginning it was hard seeing the rackets and knowing that I couldn't take them. At least it was summer and I could do many more things than in another period of the year, such as going to the beach or being with my friends.

Q: How long did they tell you that you should be in the 'dry dock'?

A: At that moment they didn't give me a deadline. I had to choose between the option of stopping and surgery, and they didn't ensure that I was going to be fine after such a surgery. I talked to other people that had had surgery and they suggested me not to have surgery. So I decided to stop as long as necessary. It was in October when I tried and continued when I saw it wasn't going badly.

Q: Did you think of the possibility of retiring?

A: You always wonder: what happens if I have pain in my shoulder and I can't play anymore?. For the moment it's good luck that this hasn't happened. When I suffered the injury I didn't know whether I could play tennis again or not, so I started to study. You have many questions and doubts, and you think that you can't be doing nothing. Now I am trying to combine both things.

The keys of a tough recovery

A thorn in her side. The Gran Canarian wants to check if she still has got tennis inside her. She admits that it could be possible that the practice of the racket wouldn't fill her, that she wouldn't be in the best condition, or that there were people who played much better nowadays. But what she affirms is that she wants to try to be there "giving absolutely everything".

Convincement. The Gran Canarian affirms that if she had to live her life again, she would follow the same steps that she has made until now. "Tennis has filled me a lot and has been very important in my life. Since I was twelve I said to my parents that I wanted to be a tennis player", she comments.

Unconditional support. During her recovery, Magüi always had the support of her family, her trainer, Fernando García, and Juanjo, her physical training. According to what she tells, "everybody has been working, even encouraging me if things went badly". The player, although she goes in the good way of her recovery, is down to earth "because you never know".

Physical shape. After so many months inactive, Serna pretends to reach an optimal physical condition to compete in the clay tournaments that come next May.

Goals. Although she says she's in a trail period, Magüi Serna puts as a goal to try to be top 100 this season, because then she would be able to play all the big tournaments of the WTA tour.

Big test. The player faces up to he first big test next May. Her participation at the Estoril tournament is very important to determine her current level of game.

From the 19th place to the 450th in the rankings

Magüi Serna is a professional player since 1996. Her best result in a Grand Slam was a quarter final in Wimbledon, in 2000. She took part in the Olympics in Athens and Sydney. She's won twice the Estoril tournament and three WTA tournaments. In January 2004 she became the third Spaniard, after Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Conchita Martínez, to reach the top 20 in the rankings, the number 19 in the world. Her most important win in a personal level, according to her, was against Steffi Graf in Montreal, in 1998. Moreover, she's got several wins against other top 10 players, such as Pierce, Novotna or Anke Huber. After having been almost one year injured and after playing the last tournament, Serna is at the moment the number 450 in the rankings.