After spending all night traveling from China to Israel, Shahar Pe’er arrivs back home in a reflective mood.
By ALLON SINAIShahar Pe'er 370(photo credit: re)
After spending all night traveling from China to Israel, Shahar Pe’er arrived back home in a reflective mood on Sunday morning following her triumph at the Suzhou WTA Tour event the previous day.Pe’er claimed her first title in almost four years on Saturday, defeating Zheng Saisai, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in Suzhou, China, two weeks after also reaching the final in her previous tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan.Pe’er is set to climb on Monday around 25 places from her current ranking at No. 113 in the world after plummeting as low as No. 179 in June.She admitted on Sunday that her extended crisis had made her consider retirement several times over the past six months, and despite the recent success, she insisted that she may still call it a career at the end of the year.“I was in a very low place as recently as a couple of weeks ago,” said Pe’er upon her arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport.“I’m slowly learning more about myself and that is the reason why I’ve also started to win more. This is an ongoing mental process. I need to remain true to myself and continue down this path.To grow as a human being is a lot more important to me at this stage. I mustn’t blow things out of proportion. I won a tournament, will climb in the rankings and won some money, but that doesn’t change me as a person. Tennis is my job, but it isn’t what I’m about.”Pe’er, who returned to Israel for a four-day break before leaving for the US to prepare for the US Open qualifiers, spoke of the temptation to retire when there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel.“I felt like I couldn’t deal with the tennis life anymore,” she revealed. “I told myself that I had a great career, but I’ve had enough and I’ve got more important things to do. I couldn’t see how I could live a happy life while playing tennis. It took a lot of psychological work to overcome this. But that doesn’t mean that I still might not decide that I’ve had enough in a few months. The most important thing is that I will be at peace with myself.”Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich were hoping to claim their second straight doubles title on the Challenger circuit late Sunday night when they faced Australians Chris Guccione and Matt Reid in the final in Aptos, California.Ram only returned to playing on a full-time basis in late April after missing seven months following hip surgery, dropping as low as No. 175 in the world last month.However, he climbed 15 places to No.124 last week after claiming the Challenger title in Vancouver with Erlich, a week after the two reached the semifinals of the ATP Tour event in Atlanta
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