Review: Carrie Soto is Back!...And So Is This Blog!!
- alexa cameron
- Jan 14, 2023
- 2 min read
No better way to revive this blog than with one of the best comeback stories of all time.
Before Carrie Soto turned thirteen years old, she knew she was going to be the best tennis player of all time. Coached by her father Javier Soto, the prodigy dedicated long hours of her young life to perfecting her abilities. As she climbed up in the ranks of the Junior Circuit, school, friends, and a social life continued to fall to the wayside. Fiercely determined, the story follows her journey to the top of the rankings---to second best in the world. Completely unsatisfied with these results, the unlikable protagonist makes intense and isolating decisions to get what she came for. Soto spends the next decade of her life setting just about every record in tennis before her injury induced retirement at 31.
Carrie's retirement turns out to be short lived. In 1994, after witnessing tennis star Nicki Chan tie her 20 Slam record, she knows she only has one option. At 37 years old, Carrie Soto Is Back to reclaim her title, best in the world. This unprecedented season will force Javier and Carrie to re-explore their relationship as both coach and player as well as father and daughter. Nearly everyone is against the return, making Carrie ask for the first time if the life she created for herself was worth the victories, and more importantly, if it's too late to change it.
Carrie Soto Is Back does a beautiful job of asking the question, what makes someone great? To what metric can be used to decide who the "best" is? Carrie's return to the Tour serves as a rude awakening for her lifelong obsession for statistically driven greatness. Instead, she will have to face the difficult truth that her achievements in tennis have left her severely wanting in every other area of her life. Loosing is her greatest fear, but it turns out to be an essential part of playing the game and passing it on. Carrie's final season is riddled with both victory and defeat, bringing out the vulnerabilities her competitors and fans always assumed she was born without.
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