Monica Puig Opens About Her Recent Fight With Depression

Monica Puig will tour again now that she had elbow surgery and developed a new approach to tennis.

The Puertorrican delayed her return after withdrawing from the challenger at Indian Wells.

The 26-year-old recently talked to La Nacion in Puerto Rico and said that she has had a tough time since winning Olympic gold in 2016. That win obviously brought a lot of joy to her country but it also raised the expectations on her. Dealing with all that attention wasn’t easy for her. She wasn’t used to that, she never dealt with anything like that before:

“It was hard for me to play again,” Puig said. “I felt people expected a lot from me and I was not ready for that kind of success.” “I hadn’t gone that far in a Grand Slam, I had only won one tournament. I put a lot of pressure on myself.”

Puig suffered on and off the court. “I would read messages online—there could be 15 positive ones but I would read one negative, and it would bother me,” she said. “I didn’t feel like doing things. I was with my family and I couldn’t enjoy it.”

The No. 87 in the rankings saw her play hampered last year because of her elbow problems. It also affected her in her daily activities so she said enough is enough and finally had surgery. Not all was bad with the injury, it helped her enjoy the game more. Puig changed her team and now she is ready to compete with the same desire she had before.