Yulia Putintseva spoke about the profound impact that her parents have had on her tennis career so far. The Kazakh’s statement came after she stunned defending champion Coco Gauff in the second round of the ongoing Cincinnati Open.
Putintseva kicked off her campaign at the WTA 1000 event with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 win over Harriet Dart, which helped her set up a second-round clash with Gauff, who received a first-round bye by virtue of being the second seed.
The 29-year-old took the lead in the match by taking the first set 6-4 before the American dominated the second to win 6-2 and force a decider. Gauff was leading 4-2 in the final set but Putintseva won four games in a row to register a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win and clinch a spot in the third round in Cincinnati.
After the match, the 29-year-old sat down for an interview with Tennis Channel, during which, she recalled how her parents Anton and Anna were the only people who believed that she could make it as a professional tennis player.
“Since I was a little kid, only my parents believed in me. They said I was able to do well with my height. Even though I’m smaller than the other ones in the group,” Putintseva told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj.
Putintseva proceeded to specifically talk about her father Anton’s advice to her when she was younger.
“My father was like ‘You’re the best. You’re the best. You have to believe you’re the best. Otherwise it’s not gonna work.’ And I was always putting that in my head. That I always have to fight. If I fight and if I’m there every point, I can do it,” Putintseva added.
“My father and I fought all the time on the court” – Yulia Putintseva’s 2022 admission
In a 2022 interview with the WTA, Yulia Putintseva had revisited the stark contrast between how she and her father Anton were with each other during training and their equation outside the tennis court. The Kazakh remembered being as hot-headed as Anton, which often led to fights during training. However, Putintseva claimed that outside training, they had a happy and loving relationship.
“My father would tell me, ‘Yulia, your temper on the court is too much sometimes.’ But his temper was too much sometimes, too. We were both hard characters when we used to work together. But outside it was a lot of love and chill time. We actually never fought outside the court. But all the time on the court,” Putintseva said.
Yulia Putintseva is set to lock horns against a resurgent Paula Badosa in the third round of the Cincinnati Open on Friday, August 16. The pair has faced each other on four previous occasions on the WTA Tour, with Badosa having a 3-1 lead in their head-to-head.
