Carrie Soto Is Back

The first morning of the Open, Carrie receives a package from Gwen with a note that says, “If anyone can do this, it is you” (132). It is a portable Discman player, and Gwen’s note says to play the first track on the CD inside: Elton John’s “The Bitch is Back.”

Javier tells her to scare everyone there and to show them that “Carrie Soto is back” (133). Carrie steps onto the court.

It is the first round of the Open, and Carrie is playing Madlenka Dvořáková. She serves first, firing an ace across the court to win the first point.

She wins set after set, and Carrie feels herself getting stronger. She takes the match, and Javier celebrates with her. He says that he missed being with her.

In the next match, Carrie wins again. She gets interviewed and is asked about Cortez, the player who lost to Nicki in the Prologue. Cortez commented that Carrie should not have come back. Carrie replies that she has every right to play, and that she intends to beat everyone: “I am going to hold their beating hearts in my hand” (139).

An interview transcript from The Mark Hadley Show follows. In it, Hadley and another commentator, Briggs Lakin, ask a former player named Gloria Jones what she thinks of Carrie’s game.