![\"Casey-backhand-700x450\"](\"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/files\/2014\/08\/Casey-backhand-700x450.jpg\")
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Casey Dellacqua enters the US Open as the newest member of the world\u2019s top 30, and seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her singles career, at No.29.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite having lost her last three matches \u2013 the latest came in New Haven to Alison Riske \u2013 the popular left-hander from Western Australia has drawn a winnable opening round match at Flushing Meadows against 85th-ranked Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria.<\/em><\/p>\n Speaking exclusively with <\/em>tennis.com.au from the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Dellacqua reflects on her astonishing rise up the rankings this season and how she feels heading into the year\u2019s final major event.<\/em><\/p>\n Less than a year ago you were ranked outside the top 200 and now you\u2019re in the top 30 \u2013 can you believe it? What are some of the things that have helped make such a rise possible? You\u2019ll be seeded for the first time at a major at the US Open. How big an achievement is this, and what does that mean for your chances? You must be disappointed to have lost your first round match in Cincinnati to Pauline Parmentier, but it\u2019s actually the first time all year you\u2019ve fallen in the first round of any tournament, which points to remarkable consistency and success. How pleasing has that been for you? What did you learn from that Parmentier match? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Casey Dellacqua enters the US Open as the newest member of the world\u2019s top 30, and seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her singles career, at No.29. Despite having lost her last three matches \u2013 the latest came in New Haven to Alison Riske \u2013 the popular left-hander from Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s been a really good 12 months, to say the least. It\u2019s probably exceeded maybe what I thought I could achieve. I\u2019ve always had goals and things along the way that I wanted to achieve. But certainly to be top 30 is something pretty special, especially being 29 and obviously probably in the latter stages in my career. But I still feel young at heart and young in the mind, so so far, so good.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I think there\u2019s been a combination of things. My coach, Stinger (Shannon Nettle), he\u2019s been unbelievable with my game and finding a way that I feel good about playing. Physically, (with) my trainer Giselle back in Sydney, we\u2019ve put a lot of hard work in over the years. And it\u2019s not just in the last 12 months, that\u2019s been like a five-year plan. And I think just being happy off the court always helps, and just having things to be excited about, and I don\u2019t worry about tennis so much. So I think a combination of a lot of things.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s obviously an added bonus, my reward for playing well. But it doesn\u2019t ever I guess guarantee you any easier draws; always pretty much at the Slams from the first round it\u2019s going to be (tough). But obviously I\u2019m not going to be drawn up against someone who\u2019s top 30, which is a great situation for me. I\u2019m looking forward to it, and hopefully I can use that to my advantage to be able to progress further in the US Open than I have in previous years.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The reality is obviously I\u2019m not going to win every week, and I\u2019m going to have losses. I came up against an opponent who\u2019d played qualifying and played really well on the day, so I\u2019ve just got back to the practice court and do what I\u2019ve been doing week in, week out, and that\u2019s working hard. I\u2019ve got New Haven next week and then obviously the US Open. I\u2019ve got numerous tournaments in Asia to look forward to (after that). So the year\u2019s not done. Just putting in some good practice days ahead of the rest of this US stint.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I think the fact that as I\u2019m playing these higher-ranked tournaments and girls, my level has to be sustainable for a long period of time. She played really well \u2013 it was tough conditions on the day I played. There were a few variables that were challenging on the day but I\u2019ve always said you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins. I will probably gain a lot more from losing that match than maybe if I\u2019d just won and cruised through to the next round. So it\u2019s been just a minor kick up the bum for me to hit the practice court and work on some things that I need to improve.<\/p>\n