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Camille Serme: ‘You Always Want to go Higher’
France’s World No.4 Camille Serme is aiming for more when the PSA World Tour season is able to resume following the suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Serme has enjoyed one of her most successful seasons to date, winning on home soil at the Open de France – Nantes at the start of the season before capturing her second J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions crown when she went on an incredible run to win the Platinum title.
However, despite the successes, Serme admits reaching World No.1 and winning the World Championship still remain two of her biggest objectives.
“It has been a bit up and down, as often for me I feel,” said Serme. “It was a good start of the season by winning in Nantes, then a big disappointment at the World Championship in Cairo, and then a great victory at the ToC.
“As a player, you always want to go higher and so you don’t take time to realise what you’ve achieved. I talked about it with my mental coach and he made me think about it and told me it’s good to remember sometimes what you’ve done.
“My biggest dream remains to become World Champion and World Number 1, that’s why losing in the quarter final at the World Open was a big disappointment. But I bounced back with my team and winning the ToC was a great reward.”
For the Frenchwoman her consistency has stood her apart in the rankings this season with her form showing her reach the quarter final stage or further or every tournament apart from one, the last tournament at the CIB Black Ball Squash Open, during the 2019-20 season.
“I thought about it when I lost to Hania [El Hammamy] in Black Ball. I was a bit sad for this reason too, but it is a good statistic.
“I guess I battled really hard to make it every time, as at the ToC, even my first-round match was really hard, but I would always make sure to make it harder for my opponent. If she wants to win, she has to beat me, I won’t give it to her.”
Serme began this season with victory in Nantes with her first appearance at the PSA World Tour Silver event and the 31-year-old credited having her family there to make the win all the more special in her home country.
“It was amazing. First, because it has been quite a long time that I didn’t win any tournament. Then, because it was very special to win in front of my family, my staff (only my husband was missing).
“And finally, this crowd was incredible! I can’t wait to play again at that tournament in Nantes: all the players told me it was special, but you don’t really understand it before you’ve experienced it.”
Serme’s crowning moment of the season came in New York though as she prevailed in a tough draw, which saw her take out World No.1 Raneem El Welily, World No.2 Nouran Gohar and then the reigning World Champion Nour El Sherbini in the final to win her second Tournament of Champions title.
“I had my whole team there and it helped a lot. We did great work together, analysing each opponent before each match, what went right or wrong after each match, doing some hypnosis before each match. It was a lot of work but when you see the result, it was so worth it.”
Away from the court, Serme has been impressing fans on social media with her singing talents which she has posted on her Instagram page and the Frenchwoman admits it is something she would love to pursue following her squash career.
“I love singing, and I finally posted something about it on social media.
“I was too shy before, but finally got some confidence about it. I’d love to make something with it after my squash career.”
Along with honing her singing talents, Serme admits it has been tough trying to keep up training while in lockdown due to COVID-19 but she is looking forward to when life can return back to normal.
“I try to maintain a certain training, it’s not easy but we do as well as we can. There’s not much space but it’s great to have internet and see what we can do online. When we will be able to go out again, I don’t know, but I can’t wait to see my family and friends!”
