Few people in tennis share the court with their significant other, and for Argentine players Nadia Podoroska and Guillermina Naya, their off-court partnership just turned professonal when they paired up in doubles last month at the Copa LP in Chile. Ahead of one of the last tournaments of the year in Naya's hometown of Buenos Aires, they sat down with CLAY's Sebastián Varela. In excerpts of this interview, they talk about traveling the tennis tour for the past two years as a couple, words of encouragement from Billie Jean King and what took them so long to make their on-court debut. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity, read the original piece, as well as others with Latin American perspective, on tennis at CLAY.
A few hours ago you were playing the Billie Jean King Cup on fast courts in Slovakia, and now you have just played on clay, at the foot of the Andes Mountains. Mastering jet lag is a requirement to be a tennis player.