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QATAR TOTAL OPENFebruary 27, 2015Victoria AzarenkaDOHA, QATAR V. AZARENKA/V. Williams Q. After the first set, you seemed to think I've got to do something different than you did, is that roughly what happened? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I had to. Otherwise, it was going very one‑way street. And Venus is the type of player that she's not going to give anything. You got to fight hard and got to try to come up with the solutions. And I haven't seen her play like this for a while, especially in the first set. Although I believe that I wasn't sharp enough; I wasn't quick enough. But she was really dictating the pace and really going for her shots. I had to find the window and find that opportunity to kind of get back in the match. Q. So you had the confidence to get in, you went in quite a bit, didn't you? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, yeah, I had to do. I had to change something and I to wanted to stay aggressive. And I believe that that's been helping me this year. You know, that's something that I want to apply more and more in my game. I think my net game is becoming stronger and stronger. I want to works towards that and just be even more all around player to really develop new skills, new weapons and I'm looking forward to it. Q. You were doing a lot of stretching in the second set in particular. Was everything okay with the legs? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I mean, after playing five days in a row, it's not always easy. And it's been a while since I had so many matches back to back, so the body is a little bit tight and it's not really warm out there. But the body is fine, it's just the tightness here and there. I think everybody at this point feels little tweaks. But I'm beginning to be fine tomorrow. I'm just going to try my best. It's important to recover and I'm going to do that. Q. You look liked two completely different people in the first second and then 2All in the second when you started to get on top of her. What was going through your mind? Were you nervous in the first set or just shocked by how she was playing? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I wasn't nervous and I wasn't really shocked because I know what she is capable of. I felt that I was just a little bit slow and not convincing enough to go for what I had to do. Sometimes it takes a little time to just kind of feel the moment, plus she was playing unbelievable. Sometimes she didn't really give me the chance. So I was just trying to stay in the moment and try to look for that opportunity. And then I just decided, okay, I just got to go for that. Q. What about when you drop serve in the third set, you've beaten her so did you feel a little bit tight in that stage? How were you mentally when she broke back? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I don't think I was nervous. I think‑‑ you know, in the match you go through so many emotions that sometimes it's difficult to understand what it is exactly, if it's nerves or if you get tired or if you loose. It's whole like a roller coaster. But I feel like at 5‑1, she really stepped it up. Sometimes you just get loose and you feel like, okay, I have nothing to do lose so I'm going to go for it. That's what happened in that moment. She just started to be more aggression I have. After that I wanted to keep my focus, keep my composure and just try to regain that aggressiveness because it was kind of toe‑to‑toe the game. Q. I'm getting a lot of abuse on Twitter for having suggested that David Beckham being here is a good thing for women's tennis in this region, that it may encourage other people to come. What's your view? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Why are you getting abused? Q. Because if you mention Beckham, you get a lot of abuse. Some people hate him. Some people love him. In fact, lots of people love him or hate him. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I don't know what's not to love about him, to be honest. But I think it's always there are going to be some people who like things, who don't like things. I think the important is to have your opinion and stick to that. I appreciate somebody from another sport, such a top class athlete being here and supporting our game. I think it's important for tennis, not just women's tennis, but it's important to feel that support from other athletes. Like we go to football games, to basketball games. It's kind of return of favor if you can call it that. I appreciate it. I think it makes it more entertaining. Haters will late. Just let them do it. Q. Were you conscious of him being out there? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, of course. I mean, when they showed him on the TV, everybody started screaming. Of course I noticed that. I tried to show off a little bit of my football skills to keep the crowd entertaining. But as I said, I appreciate that support from other athletes. It's really great and it's an honor to play in front of this crowd. So I was really happy. Q. Does it make you want to play even better to do it for Beckham? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I wouldn't go that far. As I said, it was exciting. Q. Can you talk about your next match with Lucie, how you're going to approach that match? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, right now I'm going to really focus on the recovery and try to prepare my body. And the final is something that you never know what's going to happen. There can be favorites and no favorites. Anything can happen. So for me what's really important is that I finally reach my first final after such a long break and I'm excited about it. It's the time of the week where you got to give it all and try your best. You have one more match and I just got to stay focused on my game. But she's been showing some amazing tennis from last year as well, so her confidence level is definitely up. So I'm sure it's going to be a good match. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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