JOCELYN RAE has come a long way in the last 12 months.
The journey started in the sweltering heat of Delhi, where she and Colin Fleming sealed Commonwealth Gold for Scotland in the mixed doubles at one minute to midnight in the RK Khanna stadium, surrounded by an exotic variety of bugs and crickets. The came the Israeli desert outpost of Eliat in February, where she and Heather Watson defeated world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and her partner to secure Great Britain’s place in Fed Cup Europe/Africa Group I.
Next week it is back to the genteel lawns of south west London, where the 6ft 2in, blonde English-born Scot will attempt to consolidate her growing stature on the UK scene. The 20-year-old and the fast improving Watson – who took the scalp of No.2 seeded pair Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova at Nottingham last week – have been granted a wild card in the women’s doubles, and the plan thereafter is that Rae and Fleming will reprise their Commonwealth Games roles in an all-Scottish mixed doubles team at the All England Club.
If Rae’s height – she is only an inch shorter than the tallest player on the WTA tour, and an inch taller than Venus Williams – provides her with intriguing possibilities, it can also put her body under strain at times.
The 20-year-old has a career-high singles ranking of 450 and a doubles best of 209 but she missed time from the game with a fractured tibia in 2009 and spent the last few months suffering from a stress fracture of the foot. Nonetheless, Rae feels upbeat about the chances of an extended run at SW19, a venue where she has made it past the first round on her previous two visits, not to mention making the semi-finals of the girls doubles competition with Jade Curtis in the juniors.
“I am really looking forward to getting out there,” Rae said. “Wimbledon is the best tournament in the world and just stepping out there and playing against the best in the world is something I aspire to do on a regular basis. Heather is doing great in the singles right now but I have had a few injuries over the past year or so so I suppose I have been concentrating on doubles a bit more, so I can really keep playing tournaments.
“I injured my foot at the turn of the year after the Fed Cup, but the physios at Roehampton have helped me a lot,” she added. “It put me out for a while, and when you return to competition you feel like you need a bit of confidence and a few matches to get yourself going again. That is why it has been so good to play in Nottingham and Birmingham recently; we played against some top teams, and in Nottingham we beat the No.2 seeds.
“I am as fit as I can be just now for Wimbledon, but after that I will have to try to get fitter and work harder and hopefully get on the tour and playing lots of matches again.”
If PR men haven’t been slow to exploit Rae’s potential – the aftermath of her Commonwealth triumph included one tabloid newspaper persuading her to re-enact the iconic 1976 Athena poster – her Scottishness is authentic enough. Her father Robert was born in Stirling, but moved to Nottingham as a boy, and sent an email to Tennis Scotland to establish her eligibility to compete for the nation of his birth. Jocelyn – who now trains at Esporta, Chiswick with her coach Karen Paterson – required no lessons in learning Flower of Scotland and wouldn’t have changed the experience for the world.
“Obviously there were loads of bugs in Delhi and they were all in your face and stuff but I loved every second of the experience and winning the gold medal just topped it all off,” she said.
“Colin and I are hoping to play in the mixed doubles, but the way it works that you sign in just a day or two before and the wild cards get allocated after that. So fingers crossed we will get one and the team that performed at the Commonwealth Games can get back together again. The atmosphere will be a bit different, but I am sure it will be the kind of thing me and Colin will really enjoy.”
interview Jocelyn Rae aiming to repeat Commonwealth glory at Wimbledon, writes Stewart Fisher
Eva Hrdinova (Czech Rep) 6ft 3in
Akgul Amanmuradova (Azerbaijan) 6ft 3in
Lindsay Davenport (USA) 6ft 2½in
Maria Sharapova (Russai) 6ft 2in
Jocelyn Rae (Scotland) 6ft 2in
Venus Williams (USA) 6ft 1in
Dinara Safina (Russia) 6ft 1in
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