It’s not all about winning that’s the message from Australian Casey Dellacqua.
The 29 year old lost a tough three set match against world number 18 Alize Cornet last night as Australia’s fell two matches to one in their Hopman Cup tie with France.
“For me the focus has never been on winning or losing to be honest, it’s about the process and it’s about the journey and I never waiver from that no matter who I play.”
“I can take lots of positives,” Dellacqua said.
“Obviously it’s only the second match of the season, so it’s not a time to go, ‘Oh gosh, it’s chaos’.
“It’s a time to just try to continue to improve.”
Dellacqua was dominant in the first set and got to 5 all in the second before eventually succumbing 4-6 7-5 6-1 in just her second match in 3 months.
“When you haven’t played for a while it’s a matter of making sure you’re switched on for the whole match.
“And when you play a lot of matches, you instinctively do that. Maybe I just lost my concentration a little bit there. That just allowed her to find her rhythm a bit better.
At a ranking of 29 and with a healthy body for the first time in years, the West Australian has been able to spend two months in solid training preparing for the Australian Open later in the month.
Dellacqua hadn’t previously taken a set off the French woman.
She played a lot better than Monday night when she fell to world number 7 Agnieszka Radwanska, making Cornet cover the court with a lot more precision in her ground strokes.
“She’s a pretty good player and it was always going to pretty tough match for me …. she’s had great wins over the years against Serena Williams and she’s beaten all the top girls.”
“Positives are that I can compete at that level and hopefully I can continue to improve and beat those girls soon.”
On paper Dellacqua has a much easier match on Friday night against Great Britain’s Heather Watson, ranked 50 in the world.
But for the left-hander once again it won’t be about winning
“I’m out here to get matches and I’m out here to get court time and working on my game and hopefully by the time Aussie Open peaks I’ve had a number of matches under my belt and I can play my best tennis there which is what I’m working towards.”
Marinko Matosevic who flew less than 24 hours earlier as a replacement for Matt Ebden set a up a live mixed doubles match with a three set comeback win against Benoit Paire.
The Aussies battled hard in the mixed but fell in straight sets.
Next up they take on Great Britain on Friday night.