Sara Errani's Solo So-Long

The former WTA No. 5 is wrapping up an improbable singles career.

PARIS, France — After battling back from 0-6, 2-5 down in her first round qualifying match on Tuesday on Court 14 at Roland Garros—pairing fiendishly floaty shots with a blaring grunt as only she can—Sara Errani made it clear there wouldn’t be many more magical moments like that left for her.

“This, 99 percent, will be my last singles tournament,” the 38-year-old Errani said after her 0-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 comeback win over Jule Niemeier.

Currently ranked 179th, Errani said the only possible singles tournament she might play after this French Open would be Wimbledon qualifying, if her ranking permits it.

“In the beginning of the year I decided this was my last year for singles, because last year was too tough to do both,” she explained. “I played I think all the weeks, and if there was no doubles I was going to play [WTA] 125s to [keep] ranking…but it’s too tough, physically, and I’m too old to do that again. And that's it. I'm happy, really happy, playing doubles and mixed. I'm enjoying a lot and that's it. I am also happy to finish singles.”

The 5-foot-5 Errani’s singles career was remarkable, surging in 2012 as few would have imagined possible. She was was the runner-up here in 2012 to Maria Sharapova, losing the final that saw Sharapova complete her Career Slam. That run came during a surge that took her as high as No. 5 in the WTA rankings. Errani qualified for the WTA’s elite eight-player year-end championships in both 2012 and 2013.

Errani did all this despite one of the most glaring liabilities in 2010s tennis: a notoriously weak serve that was so bad that Errani often reverted to hitting underarm.

Sara Errani preparing to hit a presumably heinous serve in 2013. (Photo by Steven Pisano)

Still, as her serve variably flagged, flailed, or flopped—it often flummoxed opponents and scrambled their brains.

“You know that’s that’s probably the easiest shot you’ll get in any sort of rally against her,” Genie Bouchard said in 2015 of Errani’s serve. “Her shots after that are pretty good and jumpy.”

Errani, of course, continues to thrive in doubles: she won the Italian Open women’s doubles just two days ago alongside her protégé Jasmine Paolini. Errani and Paolini also won Olympic gold here at Roland Garros last August—after Errani had gotten double-bageled in the first round of singles, no less.

Sara Errani celebrates her gold medal with Jasmine Paolini. (Photo by Like Tears in Rain)

That medal completed an improbable career “Golden Slam” for Errani in women’s doubles, having won all four majors alongside Roberta Vinci a decade earlier, starting with their first title together at the 2012 French Open.

“I think it's perfect,” Errani said of finishing her singles career at Roland Garros 13 years after reaching both finals. “It's really nice. It may be the most important tournament in my life, so I'm really happy to do it here.”

My favorite Errani memory at Roland Garros might be one of the most recent, and clearly she enjoyed it as well: she cackled loudly when I recalled her match at last year’s Olympics here against the Russian mixed pair that included Daniil Medvedev.

The former ATP singles No. 1, known for his strong, returning was utterly hapless and hopeless against Errani’s infamously slow serves, never making the proper adjustments to her dinky deliveries and missing many returns badly.

“That was incredible, ah?” Errani said, beaming. “I served, like, with the hand [with no power from thee rest of the body]. And he was [hitting] out, and it was like, what is that? He was too far away. I mean, they say ‘Come near’ because my service is going, like, so slow. And it was fun…yeah, it's not easy for men to return a ball so slow. And there is Vava on the net who is closing the balls. And it's not easy, I mean, it's a so bad serve. But for men, they are not used to return that kind of ball. It's not easy.”

Errani said she wants to keep mixed doubles with Vavassori as a priority as well in her post-singles career, but acknowledged that a title defense at the U.S. Open later this year might not be possible due to the overhaul of mixed doubles entry rules by the tournament, which will require either a high singles ranking or a wildcard to play.

Remixed to Relevance

“I don't know,” Errani said. “We asked, we asked it and we don't know yet. But for the moment, it's no. I mean, the mentality in the U.S. Open is to to have only singles players; they don't want doubles players. Maybe they are afraid of playing against doubles players? I don't know. But I hope they let us play.

“We are the champions there and we want to have the opportunity to play it again,” Errani continued. “And it's really sad for us to see that kind of things. I mean, let singles players play, but why are you taking out doubles players? They are the specialists on that. It's like if you do Olympics high jump and you don't let the high jumpers jump and put the basketball players to jump. What is that?! I mean, did you ever see that? I mean, this is crazy, no? But we cannot do anything. I mean, they decide everything. And we will see: we hope to play, but it's not on our hands.”

Though not thrilled with the new rules in New York, Errani made her overall debt of gratitude to the sport clear.

“For sure I'm happy about what I've [done] on my career,” she said. “So many years on the tour; not easy to stay there every time. But I'm enjoying, and I'm really happy. I'm so happy about the result that I have. I mean, I always say that I'm ‘in credit’ with tennis, because it makes me feel so many emotions.”

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