“I will not lie, it is such a big pressure because you don’t feel the same way as you feel for your sister. I feel really proud of her, because I know her own challenges, things you don’t see on the screen, I know what she deals with. [But] for myself I feel extremely bad, that it’s almost like I’m not good enough, I have to do better. I see what’s going on close to me and basically we work [as] hard [as each other] and I feel like I’m not good enough, doing well enough, like how I’m supposed to do.”
Though it was “strange” to watch her sister’s greatest moment on television, Erika, 21, says she only feels a great sense of pride for the growth she has seen in her younger sibling.
“Honestly, I know since a very young age she was always struggling with the moments when something was not going her way, to stay in the game, to stay calm, to not let everything down. I remember one of the matches about which I was most proud was against [Marina] Bassols Ribera [in the Roland Garros second round]. I wouldn’t say it was the best match of hers, tennis-wise, but I was just proud that she managed it without feeling her best in the shots that she relies on. She kept going even with a game that she doesn’t like. She managed to win.”