Carrie Soto Is Back

It is the first round of the Open, and Carrie is playing Madlenka Dvořáková. She serves first, firing an ace across the court to win the first point.

She wins set after set, and Carrie feels herself getting stronger. She takes the match, and Javier celebrates with her. He says that he missed being with her.

In the next match, Carrie wins again. She gets interviewed and is asked about Cortez, the player who lost to Nicki in the Prologue. Cortez commented that Carrie should not have come back. Carrie replies that she has every right to play, and that she intends to beat everyone: “I am going to hold their beating hearts in my hand” (139).

An interview transcript from The Mark Hadley Show follows. In it, Hadley and another commentator, Briggs Lakin, ask a former player named Gloria Jones what she thinks of Carrie’s game. However, Lakin keeps interrupting Jones and critiquing Carrie’s behavior and attitude. Lakin doesn’t think Carrie can win against her next opponent, Carla Perez.

Meanwhile, Carrie is watching a game between Nicki and another player. She notices Nicki limping, even as she moves onto the third round.

Bowe calls, saying that he won his match. She congratulates him, and he does the same for her. He says that she has something special in her game, then asks to come to her room. She tells him not to because “it’s not like that” between them (143). Bowe relents, and they wish each other luck on their next matches.

It’s the third round of the Australian Open. Carrie has won one set and Carla Perez has won the other. Carrie quickly takes the match.

The next morning, Carrie sees Bowe at breakfast. He lost his match, and Carrie expresses her condolences. He tries to blame the loss on bad luck, but Carrie points out what he did wrong: He used an old serving stance again, the one Javier told him to change. Bowe, who didn’t want a critique, gets angry; they bicker, and Bowe says that their partnership isn’t worth it and walks away.

Javier appears, revealing that, because of her ankle, Nicki is out of the tournament. Carrie revels in this news.

Soon, she prepares to face Cortez, who’d earlier bragged that she would definitely beat Carrie.

Carrie takes a minute to savor her accomplishments, which she recognizes is very different from her younger self, who would move from one challenge to the next. She goes onto the court. 

Carrie scores the first point and then the next two. As she plays, she spots Bowe, who mouths an apology. Carrie wins the set.

In the second set, Cortez seems like she will break Carrie. Carrie breaks her racket as she plays. She gets a new one, but Cortez wins the set.

Cortez has tired Carrie out, and they enter the last set tied. Cortez wins, eliminating Carrie from the Australian Open.

Javier praises Carrie for making it as far as she did in her first tournament back. Carrie is not in the mood to hear it. During the press conference, she says that she didn’t play her best and that she is not happy. She plans on playing better. She is also asked if her game is declining. Carrie says that she will win the French Open.

Carrie sees Bowe when she returns to the hotel, and he admits that he wouldn’t have done as well if not for two things: the fact that they were practicing together, and that she’s playing in general. He feels like he still has more to do, just like Carrie.

He goes to get himself a room, since he’d moved his flight to stay an extra night and watch her game. Carrie considers inviting him to stay on the pullout sofa in her room but knows that they would end up sleeping together. She worries that he’d eventually leave, breaking her heart again.

Javier is optimistic, believing that they can learn from what happened and carry on. Cortez goes on to win the Open. Carrie wonders when she lost the joy in winning and asks her father to play a match for fun. He is thrilled.

Carrie has only won the French Open once. It is played on red clay courts, unlike her other Slam wins, which were on hard courts or grass. Clay slows players down, working against Carrie’s strengths.

Three and a half months before the event, Javier drives Carrie to the beach, where she prepares for the clay courts by running five miles on the sand. After 40 minutes, she is exhausted, so, to motivate herself, she thinks of Nicki. Nicki is often injured because of her play style, but, like Carrie, she is out to win.

Every other day, Carrie runs on sand, then plays against hitters and a machine to practice. She and her father watch matches to assess where she can improve. Javier tells her that “the great match of [her] career is ahead of [her]” (168).

Carrie, Javier, and Gwen drive to Indian Wells to watch the other players on tour. On the way there, Gwen reveals that one of Carrie’s sponsors is pausing Carrie’s photoshoot and commercials since she lost at the Australian Open. They also talk about Bowe, and Gwen says that she sensed that Bowe had a crush on Carrie. She thinks it would be good for both of them if they got together.

They watch a variety of matches, taking notes. Javier is having fun, and Carrie thinks about what it would mean to just play tennis for fun without having to think about her legacy.

Carrie goes for a run, thinking about the feeling of being dropped by a sponsor. She hates feeling like she’s made a mistake. Focused, she goes to the arena to watch different matches. Then, she decides to go see Bowe playing O’Hara, who defeated him in the last tournament. She thinks about how she has always admired his spirit. Bowe nearly loses the match but comes back to tie when the umpire calls his shot out. Bowe becomes irate and yells until officials come onto the court to reprimand him.

Carrie spots Nicki watching too. She thinks about how stunning Nicki is, and how only white, blonde women—unlike Nicki and herself—appear as models. They wave at one another.

Carrie leaves before she has to see Bowe lose.

Carrie’s serve is up to 122 miles per hour, and she feels better prepared for Paris. One night, as she and her father eat dinner, Carrie notices she is not entirely exhausted even though she’s performing better than she has in a long time. The phone rings: it’s Bowe. His back has started to hurt, so instead of playing a few other tournaments, he’s headed to France to prepare for the French Open, which is two months away. He suggests that Carrie come too so that they can train together. Javier immediately agrees, so Carrie does too.

On the plane, Javier brings up improvements he thinks that Bowe has to make, and Carrie points out that he’s basically coaching Bowe. Javier wonders if Bowe thinks of him as a coach. Then, he asks Carrie if she’s dating Bowe. When she says no, he tells her to keep her heart open.

The woman next to Javier says that she’s a big fan of his, having read his book. They appear to flirt throughout the ride, but when Carrie asks about it later, Javier replies that he has “had [his] love” (185).

When they arrive at the hotel in Paris, Carrie calls Gwen. She learns that Nicki is playing the French Open. This is not good, since Nicki could win another Slam before Carrie can set the new record. Carrie says that she will win.

One month before the French Open, Carrie compliments Bowe’s playing. He admits that he’s afraid to face her since she is playing so well. They play a best of five. Bowe takes the first set since Carrie is worried about using up all of her strength. She wins the second and third sets, but Bowe takes the fourth. Carrie wins the last one. Javier says that he has notes for both of them.

While Bowe and Carrie chat, he asks about Nicki, and she admits to feeling unsure about facing her, knowing that she’ll have to do it eventually to prove she is the best. Bowe thinks that she can beat her.

When Javier tells both Carrie and Bowe where they can improve, Carrie thinks that it isn’t just her comeback, it’s Javier’s too.

Two weeks before the French Open, Bowe and Carrie are playing a practice match at night. They play late so that others won’t watch them. Javier has warned Carrie that she needs to get used to playing in front of people again.

At night, her game improves, and she gloats. Bowe asks her to be a bit humble, and she points out that she saw him yelling at the umpire in Indian Wells. He says that he’s trying not to fall back into that pattern. He adds that she could’ve come to say hello and wish him luck at Indian Wells. When she says “What are you, twelve? You need me to wish you luck?” (196), he shoots back and claims she stopped their earlier game because she was afraid of losing. He says she used the crowd as an excuse. Bowe wants to win and improve; he isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be capable of playing, and he “[wants] to give [himself] a real chance of doing something great” (196). He calls Carrie a quitter, while she says that he gets angry when something doesn’t go his way.

When they resume playing, it is with anger. Bowe misses a return and breaks his racket. They continue to argue. Bowe points out that Carrie retired after losing a few games while he kept playing, saying, “People who are actually playing the game lose. We all lose. We lose all the time. That is life” (198). He claims that while she’s a good player, he’s braver than her. He leaves.

The next morning, Bowe doesn’t come to practice, and Javier knows immediately that they fought. A crowd gathers to watch them run drills, yelling Carrie’s name and saying they love her. She sees Nicki signing autographs. She and Javier finish practice. Carrie knows that Bowe would work the crowd, but Carrie is unsure of how to interact with them, so she just leaves.

Carrie and Javier watch Nicki practice. Carrie thinks about how beautiful Nicki’s playing is. Nicki notices them and comes to say hello. She compliments both Carrie and Javier. She also thanks Carrie for coming back, saying that it’s spurred her to work hard. Carrie replies that they both know why she’s here, “[s]o…may the best woman win” (201).

The section ends with another transcript from The Mark Hadley Show. Gloria Jones tries to correct the men on the show, telling them that they should only refer to Carrie by her name or as the “Battle Axe” and not as “the B word” (202). Jones is offended by their derogatory language, but Lakin claims that Carrie is a “bitch” and that “Battle Axe” is just a nicer way of saying so.