Monica Puig: one-hit wonder?

“It’s not something that I’m used to, winning something this big, then having to continue and keep going. I would have loved to celebrate. I would have loved to have some downtime, give my body a little bit of a breather to catch up with everything that’s happened.”

This was Monica Puig’s take on winning the Olympic singles title at Rio 2016, and the whirlwind of emotion, attention and adulation that followed.

The Puerto Rican, who became a national heroine when she won her country’s first ever Olympic gold medal, was speaking after her straight-sets opening loss to Roberta Vinci in Wuhan, taking her win-loss record since the Olympics to a limp 2-3.

Like many before her, Puig has struggled now that the spotlight is focused on her more intensely. In her first match after that breakthrough, she bombed in the first round of the US Open. And when she looked like she’d settled somewhat with a quarterfinal run in Tokyo, she regressed in Wuhan.

There’s a lot to like about her game. The 23-year-old is a magnificent ball striker, a staunch competitor and an athletic mover. These were weapons that saw her cut down players of the calibre of Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber in Rio.

Yet for all her physical and technical gifts, it’s the mental side of the game with which she’s currently struggling.

“It’s been pretty tough. There’s been a lot of media attention, a lot of focus on just the Olympics. It’s kind of hard when you have to focus on other things, other tournaments, and everybody keeps bringing you back to Rio,” she explained.

“I never had this type of moment. It took me a while to go to sleep and actually calm my thoughts and not replay that moment over and over again. It’s still very new, still very fresh in my mind. I will officially always be labeled the ‘Olympic gold medalist’. I’m getting used to the title.”

We’ve seen this ebb and flow in the games of other breakthrough stars several times in 2016 alone.

Kerber struggled after her career-defining victory at the Australian Open – one could argue that despite bobbing up to win in Stuttgart, her game never truly got going properly again until Wimbledon. She’s been brilliant ever since. Muguruza is another – since capturing her first major title at Roland Garros, the imposing Spaniard’s win-loss record is just 8-7. Muguruza also endured a slump after reaching her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 2015.

It’s happened to other players too. Kvitova, after winning Wimbledon in 2011, found it difficult to adapt to her newfound fame and stature in the game; it took her three years to win her second major title. Li Na, who won at Roland Garros in 2011, exited early at that year’s Wimbledon and US Open; it was nearly two years before she again advanced beyond the fourth round at a major.

The common thread weaving these examples together is that all of these stars recovered from their slumps to prove their success was no fluke.

Puig is hoping for a similar outcome. “I’ve been trying to see things with a different perspective now since Rio,” she said.

“When I went to Rio, I was a different person. I felt like I started enjoying the process a lot more, just enjoying the moment. I really wanted to enjoy the Olympics.

“If I change my outlook on how to go about the Olympics and enjoying myself every moment I stepped on the court, maybe that’s something that will work for me in the future. I definitely feel a lot better on the court since I started viewing things that way.

“I just think it’s a matter of time and patience with myself before it becomes more of a consistency. But I’m well on my way, so… No freaking out yet.”

The Puerto Rican is too good a player not to rebound from her latest disappointment. Even Ana Ivanovic, who struggled for years following her Roland Garros win in 2008, eventually bounced back to return to the top five in 2014 and a Grand Slam semifinal in 2015 (again at Roland Garros).

The Rio result didn’t just come out of nowhere. Puig has since the beginning of the season slashed her ranking from outside the top 90 to inside the top 30 – given the Olympics carried no ranking points, that improvement was the result of consistently good results elsewhere.

The key for Puig is to rediscover the mentality that served her so successfully in 2016 up until and including that magical Olympic campaign.

“I’ll just continue to learn. The season is almost over. I know when vacation time comes around, I’m not going to be thinking about tennis. I’m going to turn off Twitter, Instagram. I am going to be like hiatus, out,” she said.

“I think it’s also healthy to just focus on myself, on the rest, what my body needs to recover, and to start a good pre-season.

“I’m not going to look at this mistake (in Wuhan) and dwell on it too much. It’s not really a mistake. (Vinci) played well. It’s to be expected at this time of the year. I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and see what I can improve for Beijing and hope for the best.”