Shining under the overhead spotlight of the conference room, Jessica Bouzas is excited after having made history, becoming the second player to defeat the previous year’s champion at Wimbledon in the first round. Until now, only the American Lori McNeil had managed to do so, against the German Steffi Graf in the 1994 edition. However, her reference is another. “Honestly, I haven’t looked at my phone. The only thing I’ve done is answer a video call from my mother to ask her where she was and see her, but I haven’t answered anyone else; the only thing, I saw a comment from Garbiñe, purely by chance, but I thought it wasn’t her, that it could be a fake account… So I looked at it, and it was her!”
Muguruza, now happily retired, is not a bad reference. She made a thunderous breakthrough in London in 2015 and was champion two years later. Garbiñe was only 21 years old at the time, one year younger than Bouzas, and she fell like a bolt from the blue in La Catedral. That scene was engraved in the Galician’s mind. And also on her skin. Although they are much more discreet than those of the recently dethroned champion, the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, she (6-4 and 6-2, in 66 minutes) also sports several tattoos. “There are seven or eight,” she says; “except the one on the finger (Shha silent onomatopoeia addressed to those people who did not believe that he would get to where he has), are hidden. There is the date of birth of my maternal grandparents, a butterfly on my ankle for my mother, another on my ribs for my family, the triskelion for my house… And I also have a lightning bolt; in fact, it is the same one I wear on my necklace. I feel that it identifies me.”
Bouzas comes from Vilagarcía de Arousa, although at 13 she enrolled in David Ferrer’s academy in Xàbia and for the last year and a half she has been training in Madrid, under the guidance of Roberto Ortega. Her knock at the All England has little to do with the one carried out in her day by Muguruza, the latter being an extraordinary player, but it certainly resonates strongly and reinforces the work of a tennis player who is learning to grow. In April she broke the barrier of top-100 and in May she achieved her first victory in a WTA 1000, the prelude to the greats; it was not against just anyone, either; she beat Paula Badosa that morning. Now, in her second participation in Wimbledon, third in a majorcelebrates with enthusiasm his first victory on a stage of maximum importance and makes himself noticed.
“Yes, I guess this is something that attracts attention. I imagine that the top players will get to know me, because in the end I am a rival, but above all it is positive because it means that little by little I have more visibility on the circuit,” she says, recalling during the conversation that last Saturday, when the draw was made, her father called her to warn her that she had a very tough draw. “And I said to him: but tell me who, dad. I was very nervous, but then I relaxed because I said to myself: ‘I am going to live an experience (playing on Centre Court) that many players will not be able to live, something incredible, so I am going to enjoy it. And so it has been. I have enjoyed the moment, I have played freely,” she continues. “But the tournament goes on,” she continues, knowing that tomorrow she will face another Spaniard, Cristina Bucsa, superior to Ana Bogdan (6-4, 4-6 and 7-6(5).
A “very normal” girl
“I am a normal girl, very sociable; I like to get along with everyone. Although I had to leave home to continue playing tennis, I still keep my circle in Galicia and my family is still in the village. I like to read and go for coffee or to the cinema, which is typical in Spain. Everything is very normal,” she describes herself, referring to the tattoo she has on her index finger, the Shh. Without any desire for revenge, just for those who feel alluded to: “It’s not about all the people, it’s just that when you are a tennis player you have a lot of people who tell you that you can’t do it, that you are bad, that you don’t have tennis, that you don’t have that quality, that your effort is not that good… It’s for those people, it’s not for the good people. It’s fun.”
And at Wimbledon, suddenly, her name is heard loud and clear: silence, here is Jessica Bouzas. “There is very little chance that something like this will happen again, so I have to enjoy it. Now I have to stop and mentally prepare myself for the next round, but I think I deserve to enjoy this moment,” she says before making a final reference to Muguruza, who hung up her racket in mid-April, at just 30 years old. “I wish I could be like her playing. I have followed her since I was little and I think she has done incredible things for Spanish tennis,” she remembers; “I don’t know her personally, and that is something that has stayed with me, a thorn in my side; I would like to be able to train with her one day or simply meet her. She has made her decision and I think that Spanish tennis owes her a lot. How long would I like to play with her? I hope this lasts a long time…”
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