Near midnight on a balmy Miami evening plus the flooring of 1 for the town’s hottest nightclubs is warming up. All eyes are drawn to a collection of blonde ьber-goddesses who are dancing up a storm, attracting lascivious glances from every red-blooded man in the room as the DJ cranks up the music. Nevertheless the girls, that are uniformly blonde, leggy and flaunting their bodies that are perfect barely-there dresses, are not the ubiquitous supermodels which is why Southern Beach is famed. No, they are the increasing stars associated with ladies’ tennis circuit enjoying a night that is rare because they attempt to get to be the next Maria Sharapova – whom, incidentally, is within the middle of this flooring, waving her hands around wildly despite whining of a neck damage early in the day.
The event could be the kickoff celebration when it comes to Sony Ericsson Open. That is one of many earth’s biggest tennis tournaments after the Grand Slams, but additionally typically probably the most relaxed compliment of its location on Key Biscayne, a palm-fringed area just south of downtown Miami however a million kilometers out of the pressures of Wimbledon.
The essential promising player associated with team is Daniela Hantuchova, a 24-year-old Slovakian that is rated ninth worldwide. As with any the girls, she talks in faltering English, is reserved and it is utterly centered on the one thing – winning. Tonight she walks the red carpeting alongside one other young hopefuls through the previous communist nations of Eastern Europe whom consented to be interviewed and photographed exclusively for Live.
Intriguingly, girls, whom include Russian-born Maria Kirilenko and Michaella Krajicek, the sibling of 1996 Wimbledon champ Richard Krajicek, studiously avoid one another in the dancefloor, each creating court along with asian wife their very own number of salivating males in several spots round the luxurious location, the Opium Garden. Them all fantasy of emulating the achievements of Sharapova, the Russian-born Wimbledon winner that has channelled her success as a multimillion-pound kingdom thanks to sponsorship relates to corporations such as for instance Nike, Canon, Land Rover, Colgate and Sony Ericsson. These earn her a predicted Ј20 million per year.
‘People see all of these girls from Russia and Eastern Europe and so they think there is certainly a factory that turns us away,’ claims Hantuchova in a barely audible throaty purr. ‘But I think the true response is that people all spent my youth in a tradition that encourages time and effort.
‘I knew once I had been 5 years old and first found a racket that I wished to be described as a expert tennis player. From a really very early age that is all we centered on. It really is good for individuals to just just take a pastime due to the method We look, but We guarantee you that tennis is my focus that is primary.
Face-to-face, Hantuchova appears 5ft 11in inside her feet that are bare of which 44in are her flawless feet, stretching as much as this smaller mortal’s neck. She talks four languages – Slovak, German, English and Spanish – and studied classical piano for eight years.
Operating her pink-tipped hands through her locks, she states, ‘It is strange in my opinion when individuals consider exactly exactly how we look. It really is nice to be complimented, but i’m an athlete, a sportswoman that is professional. I concentrate on my tennis.’
Her face clouds once I talk about the main topic of the negative press she encountered at the beginning of her profession. In 2002, she reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon as well as the United States Open and had been lauded while the next thing that is big. Then again came a period of fast weight loss that left her body searching shockingly skeletal. Rumours of an eating disorder used and by Wimbledon 2003 she had been a wreck, crashing out in the 2nd round.
Of this painful time, she states, ‘It had been very hard.
I became young and I also read precisely what had been written about me personally. A lesson was learned by me from that, which can be that people want to build you up only to tear you down once more.
‘we have always been prepared now and I also am a much more resilient individual.
I do believe far a lot of focus is wear exactly just how ladies look. You never hear people speaking about padraig harrington’s fat or exactly just exactly what David Beckham consumes.
However with girls there was this huge concentrate on appearance. People should concentrate on the game.’
Three more girls with Eastern promise
MARIA KIRILENKO: Age 21. RANKING: 32. From Moscow, Russia. Height 5ft 8in. ‘Stella McCartney required a model whenever she had been approached by Adidas to develop tennis gear. She seemed through photographs of girls in the trip and picked me personally. I suppose I am her muse. I’m not sure some of her dad’s music. I understand he had been in a combined team called the Beatles, but this is certainly more my father’s generation. I prefer contemporary Russian pop music music We began playing at seven whenever my father took us to view a tournament. I fell so in love with tennis, but We additionally love soccer – We help Chelsea. We just take a soccer it helps me warm up and stay supple and quick with me everywhere. We meet Stella twice a year in london. We practise in every the prototypes of her garments and advise her about how to make sure they are convenient.’
