Carrie Soto Is Back

The narration flashes back to Carrie’s early life. Carrie describes how Javier emigrated from Argentina when he was 27 years old. He was a professional tennis player nicknamed “Javier el Jaguar” there but retired in 1953 (13). While working at a tennis club in Miami, people began asking him for lessons. He met Carrie’s mother, Alicia, in Los Angeles, and they eventually eloped.

When Carrie is an infant, Javier brings a highchair to the courts so that Carrie can watch him. As a toddler, she begins to play, and Javier believes it is her destiny to be a great player. Alicia says she’d rather Carrie be kind and happy, but Javier says, “No one ever tells stories about that” (16).

Carrie’s mother is hit by a car when Carrie is a child, and she dies. Javier refuses to sleep in the bedroom, until one day, Carrie sees the bedroom door open. Everything of Alicia’s is gone, leaving “[b]arely any proof she’d ever lived” (16). Carrie finds a picture of her and hides it, afraid of losing that too. In the present, she only has one hazy memory of her mother. She remembers being in the kitchen with her mom and hearing her father call for her using her nickname, “Guerrerita.” Alicia turns to her and says, “Don’t let him call you a warrior—you are a queen” (17). In the narration, Carrie says isn’t sure if she made up this memory or not.

In school, Carrie is always told to speak English without an accent and to play nicer. She wonders what kids do after school with their moms before heading to the tennis courts to meet her father. She finds meaning in playing tennis. They go over the basics and the rules. By eight years old, she can hit a milk carton 100 times in a row. Eventually, Javier moves on to strategy, saying, “Your serve is your defense, but you can win games with a good return” (21). The person who can break through a good serve is the one who will win; therefore, Carrie has to be an all-court player, someone who can serve, volley, and return well. She slowly starts to break through his serve too, even if she can’t beat him.

Carrie looks at the photo of her mother each night until her father takes it, saying that it is “too heavy of a weight for [her] to bear” (23).

When Carrie is nine, Javier convinces the son of one of his students to play against her. The boy makes it clear that he doesn’t think she should be able to play at the tennis club, but Carrie beats him quickly. She adds that he wasn’t very good at tennis, earning admonishment from her father, who explains that “[p]eople always call people like [them] all kinds of things” (25). He also emphasizes that she will show anyone who doubts her that she is going to be one of the best tennis players in the world.

Javier says that she must play a better game than she had the day before, beating herself each day. Carrie feels that she has to exceed all of his expectations.

Lars van de Berg calls in 1968, setting up a match between Carrie and Mary-Louise Bryant. Carrie wonders how her father will pay for her competitions. When he asks what her strategy will be for beating Mary-Louise, who is three years older, Carrie says that she will try to shake her confidence right from the start. Javier compliments her.

When match day comes, it’s clear from her clothes and her tennis racket that Mary-Louise is wealthier than Carrie. When Mary-Louise serves, Carrie returns the ball and scores the first point. Her opponent quickly comes back to win the first game and the first set. Carrie decides to serve aces, winning the next set, but Mary-Louise ultimately finishes victorious.

At the end, and due to her father’s urging, Carrie compliments Mary-Louise’s game. Mary-Louise responds that it “was the hardest match [she’s] played in a long time” (33). She adds that she wouldn’t have beaten Carrie when she was her age.

On the way home, Carrie is angry, feeling like she has failed at the one thing that she lives for. She asks Javier if he still wants to coach her. He tells her, “I am prouder to be your father and your coach today than I have ever been in my life” (34). He explains that she is very much like him, and that he has failed to teach her that “everybody loses matches” (34). He points out that she played better than she ever has before, even though she lost.

Javier further explains that Carrie was “born to become” the world’s best player (34). Eventually, Carrie understands that he has been pushing her to best herself each game in order to get closer to the person he believes she will become. He also assures her that she never needs to worry that he will stop coaching her. Carrie, feeling better, talks about some of the areas she thinks she did well in, including her choice to clean the tops of her shoes before the match, just like the pros do.

Carrie wins the SoCal Junior Championships and performs well at Junior Wimbledon. Javier realizes that she excels on grass courts, and they fly all over the country. This, Carrie knows, is expensive, and Javier works extra hard to pay for everything. She asks if he’s sure about this path for her, and he is. When she asks to drop out of school to play full-time, he says to wait. Carrie knows the day will come.

In 1973, Carrie starts practicing with a hitter named Elena to perfect her returns. She meets Elena’s younger brother, Marco, who is 16. One day, he kisses her after practice when Javier isn’t around. This becomes a habit, which becomes Carrie’s “first real secret” from her father (40). They eventually have sex. Carrie asks if he’s her boyfriend, and he says no since they never hang out. While she is dissatisfied with his answer, she enjoys the physicality of their relationship. When they leave for Junior Wimbledon, Carrie suspects she will never see Marco again. In the narration, Carrie reflects, “[I]t seemed obvious to me that there would be other Marcos—that Marcos were easy to find now that I knew to look for them” (42). However, she also feels like there is a gap between her and Javier.

She wins Junior Wimbledon and then three more events. Reporters begin calling nonstop, and a representative from a tour suggests that Carrie enter the main women’s tour. It’s time for her to go full-time.

On the first morning of the tournament, Carrie meets Paulina Stepanova, who accidentally hits her with the locker door. Stepanova backhandedly apologizes, claiming that she didn’t see Carrie because Carrie is “so short.”

Attention stays on Stepanova, even as Carrie wins several titles and turns pro in her first year on the tour. She studies her opponents constantly and climbs in the rankings. In 1975, she goes against Stepanova for the title of the Thunderbird Classic.

The game starts positively, and Carrie “start[s] to sense that familiar hum in [her] bones” (45). She wins after a tiebreaker. With this win, she is ranked 10th in the world. However, Stepanova claims that she was injured during the match and that “Carrie would not have won otherwise” (45). Instantly, their rivalry goes public, with newspapers calling it “the Cold War” (46).

Carrie and Javier analyze Stepanova’s playing, determining that Carrie’s slice is the way to get through her momentum. This improvement also proves to be very effective against her opponents. When a journalist asks Carrie what advice she has for those trying to beat her, Carrie says that they should “[g]et better at tennis” (47). Javier chastises her, telling her that that comment was unneeded.

Carrie wins Wimbledon and therefore achieves a Grand Slam, defeating both Mary-Louise Bryant and Stepanova. However, Stepanova tells journalists that her ankle was hurt. Carrie tries to ignore it.

In the 1976 US Open, Carrie faces Stepanova again. An official comes over to ask if Carrie would allow a delay so that her opponent can have her ankle wrapped. She refuses, saying that Stepanova would not allow it if their positions were reversed. Carrie defeats her soundly, even though she knows that Stepanova is trying to garner sympathy and turn the crowd against her. Journalists begin calling Carrie “the Battle Axe” (51).

Carrie wins four Grand Slam titles by the time she is 20. However, Stepanova still holds the top ranking. Their rivalry makes Carrie—and Javier—famous. Javier enjoys it, putting out a book. Carrie, though, is dissatisfied, believing that she should be number one. She wants to break the record for the most Grand Slams for any player ever.

Newspapers and other players comment that she isn’t friendly or that she is robotic. In the narration, Carrie says, “It wasn’t enough to play nearly perfect tennis. I had to do that and also be charming. And that charm had to appear effortless” (53). Carrie gets fewer endorsement deals than other players. She also doesn’t have friends. As a result, she feels like tennis is all she has.

At lunch, she expresses her frustration to Javier, saying that they both need to work harder. Javier apologizes for saying she would be the greatest when tennis does not have a “greatest” player. Carrie feels insulted when he suggests that she “recalibrate [her] expectations” (56). She replies by asserting that if he’s okay with his pupil being second best, he should coach someone else. She storms out of the restaurant, and Javier catches up to her and tells her not to make a scene. Carrie yells about how frustrated she is that she hasn’t reached the top and that everyone expects her to smile. She leaves.

When she gets back to the hotel, she calls Lars. She asks him how he would help her where her father hasn’t, and he convinces her that he would be a better coach. When she turns around, her father is there, and he is tearing up. They argue, and Javier says, “When I see you play, I see perfection. […] So be happy, right here and now. Because of what you have done, who you’ve become. And not on some condition of being number one” (60). She asks if he thinks she can knock Stepanova out of first place. When he responds that he doesn’t know, Carrie tells him to leave. Javier says that he loves her and goes back to Los Angeles.

With Lars’s training, Carrie loses weight, and her jump improves. In the first round of the US Open, Carrie knows that if she’s going to play Stepanova, it won’t be until the final. One of the new players, Suze Carter, comes up to her and says she hopes Carrie wins since it would likely knock Stepanova out of the top spot. Another player tells Suze that Carrie doesn’t talk to others because they “are beneath her” (63). Carrie thanks Suze before insulting the other player, who is ranked much lower.

Carrie wins against Stepanova, and Lars congratulates her. He quickly goes to talk to the reporters while she “wait[s] for it to feel the way [she’d] always imagined it would. For someone to hug [her] and tell [her she] had vanquished the enemy like the Greeks against Troy” (63). No one does.

In December, she calls Javier for the first time in months, wishing him a Merry Christmas. He says that he is always watching and that he is proud. He encourages her to keep going and says that he’ll always be there for her.

At the year’s end, she is ranked the number one player in the world. She visits Javier after the Australian Open and they celebrate. They learn how to communicate without him as her coach. One day, he takes her to get an ice cream sandwich, apologizing for not letting her have them as a kid, though she believes she was better for it. Carrie thinks, “See, Dad, this is why you’re not my coach anymore” (65).

When she packs to leave, Javier warns her to be careful about her knee and landing heavily on her feet when returning serves. Carrie says that Lars says she doesn’t have to worry about it, and she agrees not to talk about Lars with him if he doesn’t talk about her playing.

Still, they begin talking about things like never before, including Carrie’s mother. Javier says he doesn’t want to see so many photos of her with men in magazines. He suggests that she go for Brandon Randall, the so-called “Nice Guy of Tennis” (68). Carrie points out that he is married to Nina Riva, a swimsuit model. 

Carrie notes that Brandon “[is] not as nice a guy as [her] father [thinks] he [is]” (69). She is having an affair with Brandon because his marriage is rocky. He feels like Carrie understands him and the pressure he is under. Unlike with other men, Carrie stays with him for months. Stepanova retires, and Carrie feels like she has everything.

Tabloids catch her and Brandon, but they stay together. Then, he tries to go back to Nina, then comes back to Carrie, and she takes him back again. However, he leaves her again, this time for another woman. Paparazzi treat Carrie terribly, and she decides never to let anyone else in like she let Brandon in.

Carrie sets the world record for most singles Slam titles in 1987, becoming “the Carrie Soto [she has] always believed [she] could be” (74). However, her knee is destroyed. She isn’t able to win a single title in 1988.

Before Wimbledon in 1989, Lars suggests that she has achieved what she will; she is no longer a perfect player. He says that it is time for her to retire. She doesn’t make it far in the tournament and falls in the rankings. She retires in August 1989.