In todays episode Emma Laine, former top 50 WTA player, visits “Linus på baslinjen podcast, powered by Zenniz” and talks about her career, Finnish tennis and how she looks at her future as a coach.
Emma Laine reached top 50 in singles in the world early on in her career. She stayed inside top 250 for a couple of years before falling out and never came back to the same height. When Emma get asked about the reason she struggled to get back to the same ranking she tells us one of big reason was that her father suddenly passed away in a boat accident. After that the tennis was not as important anymore as it had been before.
– The mental side was always my strength, but it lost its power when tennis was not as important anymore. But I loved tennis and know I would regret if I quit too early why I still loved playing, that was why I continued.
During the time Emma climbed the rankings, first as a junior and then as a senior, everything was new for her. Today with all the social media a lot of information is constantly available for us and nothing is really a surprise anymore.
– Today its more easy to know a lot about tennis. Its crazy how it has changed
Emma is nowadays the Billie Jean King Cup-captain for the womens team and get asked what she think needs to be done in Finland to make more women reach a higher level.
– I think we need to work more together. Boys and mens usually travels together to tournaments while womens do their own race. But that teamspirit needs to start grow in younger ages. We need to build it early – when people are over 20 its too late.
Emma also says that she can see that the best coaches are working more with mens and womens.
– I would love to see the best coaches getting more involved in womens tennis as well.
Listen to the episode with Emma Laine here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/36uzgOqcrkidvAqI6MnvtT?si=0957613955cf4320
