Irina Falconi did not know what to expect when she arrived in Bogota, Colombia for the Claro Open. Ranked No.92, the former Georgia Tech standout had lost seven of her last eight matches and she was about to play in tricky conditions on her least favorite surface, clay.
Then after advancing to the semifinals without dropping a set, the Ecuadorian-born American woke up on Saturday to the news that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake had torn through Portoviejo, Ecuador, the very city in which she was born. Somehow she was able to focus on the tournament and beat two clay-court stalwarts in Lara Arruabarrena and Sílvia Soler Espinosa to win her first 1st career title and boosted her ranking back up to No.67.
After the match, Falconi dedicated the win to the victims and survivors in Ecuador, but she’s vowed to do more.
WTA Insider spoke to Falconi on Monday. No surprise here: It’s been a difficult few days for the Falconi family.
Insider: How surprised are you that your first WTA title was on clay?
Falconi: Yeah, I’m pretty surprised. It’s funny because when people ask me what my favorite surface is I always say grass, and then hard court. To be the first American to win this tournament is pretty exciting.
I knew that coming in I had points to defend, which is a weekly struggle. I knew it was going to be tough with the altitude. There were going to be some challenges going there. It was more emotional. I wouldn’t say it was surprising because I know I put in the work to succeed on the court. But I would say it was just emotional.
Insider: At what point during the week did you think “Hey, I’m playing well. I could win this?”
Falconi: I think I thought that maybe at the first Championship Point. I knew that Lara Arruabarrena in the semis was going to be tough. I know Catalina Pella was going to be tough in the quarterfinals. She had just beaten the defending champion. I knew she was playing well. Then Sherazad Reix was going to be tough. She gets a lot of balls back and she can be tough being a lefty. And in the first round, as a 15 year-old you can come out and just swing away. My whole mentality the entire week was every single point. Be present at every single point. That really helped me.
I still couldn’t believe it after I won. It took three match points. There are still moments when I’ll be – like today I was walking through the airport, and I’m like ‘Oh wow, that’s really cool that happened.’
Insider: How different are the conditions in Bogota? You have the altitude but it’s also clay. It must be a very unique court.
Falconi: After 11 days being on it I can probably play on it now (laughs). I hit a drop shot the first day that ended up being a lob. That gives you an idea of what we’re dealing with. A kick serve can go over your head. You try and lob someone and it could end up in the stands. But both players have to deal with it.
Insider: I’m always curious about how players put together their schedules. Why did you choose to play Bogota?
Falconi: I won two matches there last year. I lost to Elina Svitolina in a really tough match. I knew I could play on the surface and in the conditions.
Honestly, I had a pretty crappy couple of weeks before that. I think I maybe won just one match in five weeks. So I thought, ‘Ok, let’s try and get some matches and get some momentum going.’
Insider: Tennis players lose pretty much every week. How do you stay positive when you’re stuck in a rut and your form isn’t delivering the results you’re after?
Falconi: At the end of the day you’re a week away. You’re a week away from getting your mojo back, cracking the Top 100, getting into a main draw at a Slam. You’re one good week away from hitting your career high. My coach and I always say, you need five good weeks out of the whole year to be Top 100. Five good weeks. Then you have a few ok weeks, and then you have 10 bad weeks, and you can be Top 100 in the world.
Above all you have to have that mentality that it does take a few matches until you can find your rhythm. You never know what could happen. If you would have told me a few weeks ago that this would happen, that I would win this, I would have been like “Right, sure, have you seen my record this year?”
Insider: Are you the type of person who finds it easy to stay positive? Or do you skew negative?
Falconi: It can get extremely tough if you allow it to. If you ask anyone I try to stay super positive. I’ve dealt with friends, players, co-workers I guess who are in the same boat as me, they’re toxic sometimes because they’re so negative.
It’s just a matter of instilling in your own mindset and other people’s mindset that I understand what you’re going through but you have to see it in a positive. Obviously it’s hard to stay positive after losing four first rounds in a row. But at the end of the day if you just continue chipping away and you know what you’re doing is good, it all pays off in the end.
Insider: You were born in Portoviejo, Ecuador, which was one of the most heavily affected cities in the earthquake. You still have a lot of family there. I believe after the match that your father was actually in Ecuador when the earthquake hit on Saturday?
Falconi: He actually happened to leave just the day before it happened. A good chunk of my family is still there. A lot has been affected by everything but thankfully there have been no casualties. The house I was born in that I happened to see for the first time last year, is gone. It’s been really bittersweet because at the end of the day, ‘Oh yay you won a tournament,’ but people are dying.
It’s really tough because people are asking me what message I have for the people there and…what can I possibly say to them? Obviously I’m sending so many prayers and my team and I are looking to see how we can donate and help the victims and families over there. At the end of the day all you can do is continue praying and hope everyone is ok.
I understand there are a lot of people who have lost loved ones. It’s been really tough, to be honest. I spoke with a few family members and they can’t stop crying. How am I going to be gloating [about a title] around that?
I won a title but believe it or not I’ve been really low key about it. One of my friends Shelby Rogers asked me how things are going over there. It puts everything in perspective. Oh you won a WTA tournament. Then you talk to someone and they just lost their home where they’ve grown up all their life. It’s just been bittersweet to say the least. There’s been a lot of angst and, to be honest, there’s no right way how to act.
Insider: How did you find out about the earthquake and how hard was it to focus on tennis?
Falconi: I got the news the morning of the semifinal match on Saturday. We have a Whatsapp group with over 100 family members and we started getting a bunch of messages and I didn’t know what to think at first. I was trying to focus on the match. But my mom couldn’t get a hold of my dad. It was really scary. There’s no wi-fi, there’s no light, there’s no water. And it just happened to be my birthplace, my hometown, where I grew up for three years, that was the most affected.
Insider: You said you’re working through some ideas on how to help the victims and survivors in Ecuador. Do you have a sense of what you want to do yet?
Falconi: I’m still working through it with my family and my team. I’d just ask people to keep tabs on me and I’ll announce what I plan to do donation-wise and how people can help.
Follow Irina on Twitter @IrinaFalconi.
Editor’s Note: Falconi has created a donation page to raise money for the Ecuador Earthquake relief effort, and shared the following details on her Twitter account:
– All photos courtesy of Claro Open Colsanitas
