Philosophical Peer puts Wimbledon defeat into context

Shahar Peer was in philosophical mood after seeing her Wimbledon campaign come to an early exit on Tuesday afternoon.

The Israeli, who has endured a miserable last 12 months, always faced an unenviable task coming up against Caroline Wozniacki, and although she eventually fell to a 6-3, 6-0 defeat, she did cut an upbeat mood after her loss.

More than happy with her performance in the first set, which was a tight affair, rain brought a halt to proceedings on Monday night, with her trailing the second set 2-0. Tuesday afternoon saw her lose the next four games in quick successions.

However, looking on the positives, she said: “In every game [in the first set] I had chances, which is a good thing. I wasn’t happy with today – I’d rather forget about it as I was really bad. I was too nervous going into the game and thought I couldn’t be focussed on the match, it was weird. I guess I prefer to forget about today, but reflect on yesterday where the difference was only a point here or there.

“I may not have taken my chances but at least I performed well. I played well mentally and tennis-wise it was good. And it’s good for me to take this on board for the rest of the year.”

Performances of late have been disappointing, and seen her plummet to the mid-80’s in the rankings, and for someone who “seriously” considered retiring from the game last year, she admits sometimes it’s hard to get herself motivated. She said: “It’s not easy, there’s a lot of up and downs but I’ve improve a lot inside as a person, my personality, and I hope my tennis will also come together, I think it’s a process and there are other things that are happening in my life, it’s about me being a better person with myself so it’s a lot of things, not only tennis.”

And saying she’s working on improving her ranking, which not so long ago saw her threaten to break into the top 10, she says: “I’m trying to be aggressive, especially on the grass where the court is quick but it’s the way I need to play if I want to compete with the top women players. It’s about finding the balance but also not missing [the shots]. So that’s the secret, to try to be more aggressive and take my chances – and I’m working on it.”

And believing changes as a person can help this, she says: “I’m looking outside of the court. There’s the tennis in which I want to be good, but there’s a whole world around it. As I get older, other things are coming in, when you’re younger you just want to play, but as you get older there are other issues to deal with.

“I’ve had some tough moments, I almost retired in the last year, but right now I’m trying to give my best and not take a win or loss as hard as I used to.

The main target I set myself is to be happy, not about where I can get in the rankings. If the ranking comes it will come, of course the main thing for me when I play tennis and go on the court is to win, but I think I give it too much of an issue about winning or losing and I lose a little bit about being personally happy. So the important thing for me is to be happy and to try and balance this together.”

Also defeated in the first round on Tuesday was Julia Glusho, who’s debut on centre court against last year’s runner-up Sabine Lisicki, lasted just 57 minutes as she was beaten 6-2, 6-1. But believing she’s a fine player in the making, Peer said: “She’s a good friend of mine and a really good player. She’s just starting to play the big tournaments this year and she’s now playing her first full year on the main circuit. It’s good experience for her and she’s a good player. She always has been and is very talented and I hope she will do well.”