Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/699819
20 MANUELA MALEEVA Bulgaria W hat sticks out to me is winning the quarterfinals so knowing that I would have a medal from the Olympic Games. It was my first Olympics so everything was just so incredible, to be there, and winning that match against Raffaella Reggi – she had beaten Chris Evert, so I had a lot of pressure for that match because I had never lost to Raffaella. It was for an Olympic medal and I won it and it was an incredible feeling. Going out for the ceremony on the centre court was something incredible. We were two bronze medallists because we didn't play for it, Zina [Garrison] was the other. I was so overwhelmed by everything that was happening: all the people, the music, the announcements of the names, that I didn't hear mine and they had to tell me to go on the podium. I was just so really, really happy. We grew up knowing that tennis was not in the Olympics so I never imagined one day I would play at the Olympics. It was really a dream. The Olympics is something still different and you play for your country. There is more pressure. I played in the Barcelona Olympics and I lost in the quarters there to Mary Joe Fernandez in three sets. I was one set away from another medal and that is one of my very, very disappointing matches in my career overall. Tennis was not the sport that has the medal championships worldwide, so nobody (at home) really knew what it meant to be in the quarters or semis of a Grand Slam. And maybe with the Olympic medal they realised a little bit more what I was achieving. From then on I became a star in Bulgaria. SEOUL 1988 WOMEN'S SINGLES BRONZE When people ask me I realise what I have done. Sometimes when I talk with my kids, only a few years ago one of them told me, "But mom, you have an Olympic medal and you have never shown it to us." So I went and I looked into all the boxes and now it's in a place where I know where it is. It's one of my most cherished objects that I have but I'm not exposing it in the middle of my living room. It's in a box in a drawer. I didn't feel the need to expose all that. I have it, it is in my heart, and it's in some of the boxes so if somebody wants to see it I'm happy to show. From then on I became a star in Bulgaria. From then on I became a star in Bulgaria.