Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 66, January 2015 | Page 22

Ma

Running & Sport

Advantage, CHANI
We caught up with SA’s top ranked female tennis player, Chani Scheepers, to chat about life on the Women’s Tennis Association
World Tour and her fitness regime to help her chase down every shot on the court. – BY SEAN FALCONER

CS: With my game style I put a lot of focus on
fitness. I’ve been working on trying to be more
aggressive in my play, but my strengths are
retrieving a lot of balls and forcing my opponents
to miss. With this I need to be sure that I can
stay out there with the best in the world as long
as I need to, so fitness is very important to me.
MA: You hail from Harrismith but left home
quite young to pursue your pro tennis
career. Is it hard to live so far away from
your family and home?
CS: I’ve been based in the USA for about 10
years. I realised that if I wanted to make a
success of my tennis career, this would be the
best decision – it was just too expensive to travel
back and forth from South Africa and at the
time I had more opportunities in the USA. I miss
SA a lot, so I still try to get back at least once
a year, and I have my family travel with me to
tournaments as well. For now the USA is home,
but in my heart South Africa is still home.
MA: People often think that the life of a
sporting pro is glamorous, but living out
of a suitcase can be unsettling and tiring.
Does seeing the world and mixing with the
world’s top players and celebs make up for
the somewhat disrupted lifestyle?

CS: Making the fourth round after coming
through qualifying of the French Open was
definitely a highlight, as this got my world
ranking into the top 100 and I’ve stayed there
for the last five years. It gave me the confidence
that I was good enough to compete with the
best in the world. Winning my first WTA event
in China in 2011 as well as making the doubles
semi-final at Wimbledon were also big highlights.
This year’s highlights were making a final in
Sweden and a semi-final in Colombia.

MA: I would imagine you focus more on
short sprints, agility, change of direction,
etc, than long distance running, but I
would think you need that as well?

MA: There must be a lot of pressure on a
pro tennis player to perform regularly on
the court in order to make a living. How do
you cope with this?

CS: We have a very long season, but we have
an off-season from October to December. During
this time I focus a lot on one-hour runs, hill
sprints and spinning. This ensures that I have a
good base. The closer I get to tournaments and
during the season I do more short sprints, agility
and shorter runs.

CS: It definite H\