A constant tension running underneath Carrie’s comeback is the way in which she is held to a different standard than her male peers in tennis. Throughout her initial career, Carrie purposely crafted a cold image, fighting against the expectation that women in tennis should be dainty and polite. This earned her a controversial reputation, and many saw her as ruthless, unfeeling, or a “bitch.” Carrie does not let this affect her behavior. Though she softens over the course of the novel, it is not in accordance with societal pressure, but rather because she chooses to relinquish the pressure she placed on her own shoulders.

Evidence of this theme crops up throughout the novel. When Carrie is teased by the son of one of Javier’s students at the tennis club, she tells him he is terrible at tennis. When she tries to justify this, Javier tells her, “People are going to call you a lot of things in your life. […] People always call people like us all kinds of things” (25). He is alluding to the fact that he is a Spanish-speaking immigrant. He knows that Carrie is already at a disadvantage, and he does not want her to make life more difficult for herself.