this week to an obscure Romanian player, said she was going through some personal problems. They include an ongoing battle with her father and coach, a man with a volatile temper who is disliked in much of the tennis world.
Aravane, however, is the darling of French tennis. The 24-year-old Rezai came to prominence two years ago at the French Open, reaching the fourth round and conquering the crowd with her smile and spectacular game.
But she lost to the unknown Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-3 Monday. During the match, she committed 44 unforced errors.
Last year, she won the Madrid Open for her biggest victory, defeating three former top-ranked players en route to the title, and climbed to No. 15 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. Now she has sunk to No. 41.
Her rise to the top of the game was abruptly ended by serious family problems.
“In January, I was thinking [about retiring], but I finally decided not to stop because I love tennis,” Rezai said. “Now, I know that I will come back stronger.”
At the Australian Open in January, the Frenchwoman had a wild argument with her father and longtime coach, Arsalan Rezai. French media said the incident began as an altercation between Arsalan and Aravane’s boyfriend, who is apparently unwanted by Arsalan. The incident was so serious that the WTA opened an investigation and decided to provisionally suspend Arsalan from attending his daughter’s tournaments.
“Every single day, it’s a fight against myself,” Rezai said. “It means that I need to find a form of peace within myself, to be positive, to be at ease and not to think about my problems. Serenity is what I’m looking for every single day.”
The Australian Open scandal was not the first mistake for Arsalan. In 2006, he was found guilty of using violence against the father of a rival player, after he used insulting language on the eve of the 2004 French championship for players aged 17-18. The French Tennis Federation subsequently banned Aravane from the national training center.
Severing the ties with her father was all the more difficult for Rezai because Arsalan was the man who put her on the path to success. When she started playing at 8, it was he who pushed her to the limits, sometimes making her train at night under the headlights of a car.
“Everybody knows that there are problems at the moment,” Rezai said. “But I don’t want to think about them. What I want is to be stronger every day and to find my own landmarks.
Rezai has won four WTA titles but has yet to win back-to-back matches this season. To help her in her preparations for the Roland Garros tournament, the French federation provided her with coach Alexia Dechaume, but it’s still unclear whether they will keep working together
“Alexia was proud of me today,” Rezai said. “My goal is now to have a good staff surrounding me and to be all stronger. Now that the French Open is over, all of us will be discussing the matter and we will take the best decision for my future.”
