She exchanged Paris for Prague. Now Serme wants to succeed in the Olympics of non-Olympic sports
She has already tasted the atmosphere of the Worlds. In Wroclaw 2017, she took 17th place. “It was fine. Although I lost in the first round, I won all the other matches in the loser’s bracket. I even got a medal. I was happy with her, because I went to the event as a substitute,” recalls the current Czech number one. At that time, her busy schedule did not allow her to visit many foreign sports venues, this time she would like to do more. “We went to Poland to watch powerlifting. One boy had an arm like my three thighs. It was fun to talk with them about such a different sport,” says Anna.
He will fly to the action of the games on Tuesday and stand on the court a day later. “It will be challenging. The tournament was originally supposed to start on Thursday, so we will arrive late. But there’s nothing you can do, changing tickets to Alabama would be too expensive,” says the 41st ranked player in the world. Her opening opponent, German Kateřina Týcová, ranks 89th lower. “This is one of the more difficult draws for the first round,” says Serme. Under normal circumstances, she should win, but one circumstance speaks against it. “Four months of wrestling with tennis elbow. At the Center for Movement Medicine of Pavel Kolář, they put me in order, and after the games I get on the shock wave. That’s where my ambition comes from – I’ll just see,” he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
Squash Strahov won the 21st extra league title. In the final, he defeated a player from Brno
Participation in the World Games can be of crucial importance for squash. Nine disciplines from their program – badminton, baseball, karate, beach volleyball, rugby, sport climbing, surfing, taekwondo and triathlon – have made their mark between the Olympic Games. “It’s hard to keep hope. We’ve been talking about it for a long time and somehow it’s not going well,” Anna is not overly optimistic. “There were intense campaigns for several years and we were still the first sport below the line that didn’t take. It seems to me that squash has been forgotten. People often ask me how this is possible, and I really don’t know,” reflects the 31-year-old representative.
The past season was a turning point for her in many ways. She shined, for example, at the US Open, where she beat the Dutchwoman Mila van der Heijden, and then reached the highest ranking – 38th place. First of all, she moved from Paris to Prague with her French husband. “Lucas is learning Czech. He likes our country, culture and history. Actually, he never wanted to live in France,” says Serme. The cost of living in the city on the Seine is enormous. “There are too many people living in the Paris region, you are forever standing somewhere in a traffic jam. It’s very hectic there, we’ve had enough,” Anna calculates. It is said that it is “just right” for Prague. “You can walk everywhere on it, public transport works, there was always a strike in Paris.”
Solnický is the new squash king, Serme won the fourth title
In the Czech capital, squash couples are happy. It’s probably only worse with sparring. “It’s true that you won’t find so many quality girls here. But I’ve been playing for some time now and I’ll prepare my own game,” says Serme, who became a member of SKS Modrý svět. “Petr Steiner, who is my sparring partner, trains there. We have matches before the tournament, which is great,” he praises himself. Her husband, who made it to the 32nd position in the PSA rankings, landed in Strahov. “There are a lot of foreigners who train here all the time. So it’s good in the end,” smiles Anna.
It would only take two things… “My immediate goals? Treat yourself. I hope the shockwaves take over. But now I’m concentrating on the World Games. Even though I know it’s going to hurt like crazy,” adds Serme.