Tennishead: Gotta love modern technology, eh? OK, we’re thinking of a question…

Anna Fitzpatrick: Haha… a parcel just arrived!

Tennishead: OK, that can be our first question… what’s the parcel?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Good news… it’s for me! Bad news… it’s the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 2008 year-end player mailing, whatever the heck that is!

Tennishead: They’re probably wondering where you’ve been for the last four months. On that subject, how’s the foot?

Anna Fitzpatrick: It’s not too bad. I stopped wearing the big boot thing about three weeks ago, and for the first two weeks it was pretty stiff and uncomfortable to walk around. Then the pain subsided and it felt fine for a few days, but then last week I got a bit of pain again.

Tennishead: So how close (or not) are you to hitting a tennis ball?

Anna Fitzpatrick: If the pain in my foot is only ligament-related, then I should be able to start hitting balls next week – just up and down the middle though, not a lot of movement involved.

Tennishead: Are you waiting for more results at the moment then to determine the cause of the latest pain?

Anna Fitzpatrick: If ‘waiting for more results’ means waiting till next Wednesday when I see my physio again and we discuss if the pain has gone then yeah! If the pain disappears before the weekend, then it was ligament-related, but if it’s still there when I go to see him next week, it is probably the bone playing up again.

Tennishead: Which, presumably, is bad news?

Anna Fitzpatrick: If it’s the bone, yeah, but my physio said his gut feeling is that it’s the ligament, which isn’t so bad.

Tennishead: So, let’s think positive… if the pain goes this week, do you have any idea when you might be back on a match court?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Match court? Well, I’m entered into a $10,000 ITF in Glasgow in January, but if I do go there I’ll just play doubles. Either way, I’m hoping to go to the States on January 20 for five tournaments and an MCTA training block. I’d be back on March 8.

Tennishead: So there’s light at the end of what’s been a rather long, dark tunnel. That’s good news. How’s your state of mind – you haven’t played for around four months now. Have you lost your marbles yet?

Anna Fitzpatrick: I was doing really well until about two weeks ago when I got a bad pain in my foot and I got so annoyed and fed up with it. I kind of had about three days off from ‘professionalism’! I don’t mean anything bad, I just mean I went to bed really late, got up at like 11, watched loads of TV, didn’t do any work or jobs! But then I decided I needed to get back into good habits so I did.

Tennishead: What do you mean by ‘good habits’? We could do with some advice.

Anna Fitzpatrick: Going to bed before 2am and getting up before midday! And doing some jobs around the house to help my mum. Being a good girl.

Tennishead: Are you still hitting the gym regularly?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Yep, every day, but I had two days off last week when my physio told me to, because I needed to do that to help determine the source of the pain.

Tennishead: Guess the positive thing is that you’ll be mentally and physically fresh when you come back. Some sportsmen talk about realising how much they love what they do when it’s taken away from them. Has that happened to you?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Yeah, definitely. I’ve also realised that even if I put everything into my tennis career, but don’t get everything out of it that I want that I have a good stable background and a very good life to go back to. So I figure why not just go for it, without any inhibitions, and see where I can get to.

Tennishead: Sixty-four thousand dollar question… where do you think you can get to?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Well, hopefully with more than 64 grand as my career earnings! I don’t know, that’s what I want to find out.

Tennishead: Good answer. So what’s AF up to for Christmas. Are you in Sheffield?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Yes. My best friend from school is coming to visit and I’m going with another friend to watch Sheffield United against Crystal Palace (he’s a Palace supporter!).

Tennishead: Are you a Blades fan then?

Anna Fitzpatrick: Absolutely! I hope there wasn’t any confusion on your part – don’t go thinking I’m an Owls fan please! That’s possibly the worst insult a Blades fan could ever get.

Tennishead: If you’re from Sheffield, how do you decide which team to support? Is it a family thing or where you live?

Anna Fitzpatrick: My dad supports Wednesday so naturally me and my brothers are all Blades! Bramall Lane is closer to us as well though.

Tennishead: Right, reckon we’ve occupied more than enough of your time and if the boss sees us on Facebook any longer there’s absolutely no chance they’ll believe we’re conducting an interview. Thanks very much for taking part in our ground-breaking experiment and our fingers and toes are crossed for good news about the injury… chat again soon!