When I was a child, tennis was nowhere near as big in Italy as it is now.

Football has always been the number one sport in our country – people live for it.

Now tennis is not far behind catching up with football in popularity.

The amount of attention I received started to increase a lot after I reached the French Open singles final last year and again after I did the same at Wimbledon.

But I felt the biggest difference after I won a gold medal for Italy in the Olympic doubles.

It was crazy when I returned to Italy after Paris. The attention meant I couldn’t go out! No, I’m joking with you, but it was intense.

So many people were coming up and saying something about the gold medal when I was out in the street.

I felt it was not just tennis fans who were recognising me now.

When I reached the Roland Garros and Wimbledon finals, it was more tennis fans who were stopping me for a picture, but the gold medal was something more global.

I haven’t needed to hire a security guard yet, though!

Sometime people shake my hand or sometimes they hug me and say “please, I want to give you a kiss”.

Older women in their 60s and 70s, they’re the ones who come up and say they love me.