Tennis player Sabino planned to compete with students and ended at match with Vesnina
Universiade bronze medallist in the mixed doubles event Lisa Sabino of Switzerland has stated that she never expected that she would be competing with professional players at the tournament in Kazan.
Eichenberger and Sabino were defeated by Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov and Elena Vesnina in the mixed doubles semifinal and automatically got bronze.
"It was very hard for us because we are just normal students and we had thought that we would be playing the same sort of students, but in reality it turned out that we had to play such players as Vesnina," said Sabino, who takes 731st position in the WTA current singles ranking. Answering the question about how much people in Switzerland value bronze medals, he said: "Of course, not everyone knows about the Universiade, but these are large-scale competitions and the medals will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We will be proud of our medal, and as for gold – there was simply no chance that we could get it." Eichenberger admitted that he roughly takes 1,500th position in the world tennis ranking and added that "Kuznetsov and Vesnina play much faster than the other competitors". "It was also a bit difficult for us to adjust to the flooring of the central court, which is different from others. Here the ball flies flat and low, and you always feel tension," he noted.