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WIMBLEDONJune 25, 2014Sergiy StakhovskyLONDON, ENGLAND S. STAKHOVSKY/E. Gulbis THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Clearly you like playing at Wimbledon. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Well, I do. The results of today speaks by itself. Q. And last year's results? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Um, yeah, yeah. Was not bad result. Q. But can you kick on this time? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Well, hopefully I'll do everything in my powers to play better next round. I believe I'm smarter. I learned from my mistakes from last year, what I've did wrong, and hopefully will be better. Q. Could you compare this match that you did last year against Federer? Are there some similar aspects? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: No, not even close. Roger and Ernests on grass is like Rafa and me on clay. Q. What do you particularly like in this tournament? The surface? The atmosphere? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: The surface. The surface is fast. It's no bounce. It's speedy. It's exactly what I need. So pretty much I have the chance of finishing that volley if I have it. On other surfaces, not so easy. Q. Gulbis said that the Slazenger balls are a bit hard to get spin on. Did you find that? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Also it's hard hitting them even, but he's still serving 135 miles. So for somebody in his... Q. He said he hit it flatter. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Really? Well, 135 miles is flat enough for me. I was going to 120, 125 maybe, so he's still ten above. I feel the balls are heavy for me, but they're all right. Q. Is it difficult to play someone you like? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: It's never easy playing Ernests because he's the kind of personality you don't know when he's serious on court and when he's laughing. I was trying not to get too much in conversation with him, but it's hard not to. Q. You said you had learned from what happened last year after the Federer match. What is it that you have learned that you hope to carry forward now? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Like 355 press conferences. Q. You handle them very well. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Yeah, but I didn't handle the next match. Q. That was a big problem? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: That was a huge problem and huge mistake I've did. Today this is the only press I'm doing. Q. Was there a letdown? Is that what it was? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I don't know. Just emotional emptiness. Just spent so much energy on different interviews and articles and everything that I was empty when I went on the court. Q. You're trying to avoid that now? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Exactly. Q. I know you've been on the ATP council. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Yes, I was reelected. Q. Congratulations. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Thank you. Q. What are your thoughts on the next challenges for the ATP? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: There are always challenges. I've been there for two years and we just solved one problem. I mean, prize money on Grand Slams. Hopefully we'll be able to solve them by this year. So we did what we ‑‑ we negotiated with Grand Slams fairly enough, and think that now we need to negotiate with our own tour in all fairness. Q. You spoke about equal prize money before. Is that something you still think is a possibility or something you've given up on? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Look, my position is never changing. The man is only as good as his word is. I don't think that equal prize money is in the right place. It's not about the physical and anything else. It's just the value of the product is different. That's it. Q. That was the first time here I think yesterday or two days ago where they had two women's matches on Centre and Court 1. Usually the other way around. Do you think the men should get scheduling preference? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I believe that Wimbledon knows what they want, and they schedule the way they need it and the way they can bring more people in. Q. Have you had a chance to talk it Chris Kermode at all? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Yes, a lot of time. Believe me. Q. Anything you can tell us? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: I think he's a great president. I think we're very lucky to have him as our president. He's a great person, he has a great personality, he's a very decent man, and that's exactly what our tour needs. Q. Any particular issues you brought up? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Not going to discuss it here. Q. Who would you prefer for the president of the board now that Roger is... SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Not the president of the board, it's the president of the council. I don't believe I'm person who should be president. Let's be realistic, I'm 90 in the world. We have Simon, we Wawrinka, so we have players who can represent us better just by their name. So we will be looking at this more likely. Q. When look back to last year, what is the difference between you last year and you this year? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Hopefully there is not a difference. The is game is still there. That's what I need to know. The rest, I don't pretty much care. Q. Do you think you can handle the second week here? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Well, for the moment I want to handle the next match. If I handle the next match, I'll be in the second week. Q. Roger said this yesterday, that he's coming to the net more, that some players aren't doing that now. That's the fundamental bedrock of your game. Do you sense there is a bit of that on tour, the attritional tennis that we've been used to might be changing? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: It's not going to change because the surfaces we're playing on during the whole season are so slow that you actually cannot do it. You have no chance. Not that you don't have chance. You have chances, but in the long run you cannot play 60% serve and volley and win the match unless you're just incredibly lucky. Q. You won a number of smaller tournaments, and a lot of players, some players... SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Smaller? Is it challenger or... I mean, 250 event is a small event. It's a small event. Q. Smaller than Wimbledon. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Okay. That's a good comparison. Q. Why do you think it's been difficult to translate that success to bigger tournaments? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: It wasn't difficult. I was in the third round of every slam. I mean, if you take it, I had my ups, I had my downs. I did some mistakes through my career which brought me where I am now, but I believe I'm working hard enough to come back. Q. I know it's a long way to go, but will you play Davis Cup against Belgium? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Yeah, we do. No, I don't know. Depends whether the Federation wants me to play. I haven't heard from them yet. We'll see. Q. Seems to be an issue if the tie will take place in Ukraine. Do you know anything about that? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: Why is an issue? Q. Because ITF is negotiating with the Belgian Federation if they're going to play in Belgium. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: There is no way we're going to play in Belgium. ITF said that we cannot play norther than Kiev, or ‑‑ I'm sorry, east. East from Kiev we cannot play, so we playing in Kiev. There is nothing wrong in Kiev for the past six months. I mean, apart from February. At the moment, we have some disturbances on our Russian border thanks to the Russian citizens. Apart from that, we're a very calm country. Q. Can you spoken to Wladimir Klitschko about the situation? SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: No. Should I? Q. Not necessarily, no. Just wondered if you had. SERGIY STAKHOVSKY: No. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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