|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAUMarch 31, 2015Andrea PetkovicMIAMI, FLORIDA A. PETKOVIC/K. Pliskova THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. I guess it's a good win for you against an up‑and‑coming player playing great tennis? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I have been playing really well, and I have been playing already really well in practice at Indian Wells. I just couldn't transfer my game into the match, and I was very upset and very disappointed with that. But already then I told Doris, the German journalist who was there, I told her, I'm playing well. I don't know what was wrong today. So it was good that I, you know, I stayed calm. I believed in myself. I knew that I was playing well and I worked on a lot of things. Now, finally, I can transfer them into the match and I'm really happy with that. I'm more happy with my game than being in the semifinals, which is also really nice. Q. What is it about Miami? You have really done well here. You seem very, very comfortable here, and I notice like each year you have quite a fan following here. What is it about this tournament that you seem so comfortable and do so well here? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I think the thing with Miami for me is that I am naturally a very uptight person when it comes to my job. I'm just very stiff German (smiling). So like in my personal life I'm total opposite. I love having fun and dancing and joking around and doing fun stuff, but just in my job, I'm just very straightforward and disciplined. With the discipline comes a lot of tightness, as well. Miami kind of relaxes me. I don't know, maybe because it's kind of crazy and chaotic. These two opposites, they sort of mesh into a balance that's good for me, I guess. I have the same in Paris where I also feel very comfortable. Just the city relaxes me. I think that's very important for me. For example, I never played so well in Indian Wells maybe because everything is so... Q. Pristine? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah. And very clean. Then I get into my complete German mode, and that's not good for me, actually (smiling). It always has been a struggle for me finding the right balance, and it always will be throughout my whole life. I know that. The older I get, the more I manage to find a golden line, I guess. But Miami definitely relaxes me. It's good for my mood and maybe I should move here (smiling). Q. Do you think maybe like you're not really German, like maybe somebody mixed you up? Like talk about your alter ego. What do you think your alter ego really is? We have a stereotype about Germans. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, that's the thing about me. My parents are from Serbia and I have Serbian blood in me. I have this fiery side of me, but I definitely, I'm a total stereotype of a German. I'm kind of proud of it. It's nothing bad. I'm just trying to do everything as good and as perfect as I can in order to be the best tennis player that I can be. For me, that's doing the right things. I do them. But the minute when it gets too much and when I want to ‑‑ it transforms into a tightness, then I just can't play at all. It's horrific to watch, actually. I have known that for myself. So being able to bring that personal, maybe not the fiery side but maybe just the relaxed, outgoing girl that I am in my personal life, to bring that into my tennis life, as well, is maybe the key for me to be playing well. Q. Do you think that's one of the hardest things for a professional athlete is finding that mix of relaxation and concentration in a competition? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Definitely, yeah, definitely. I think especially for tennis players, because it's so much mentally. And there are players, when you see them hitting the ball, you wonder why they are not in the top 10, and then you cannot even find them in the top 100. It's because when you can't‑‑ it's such a difference between practice and matches and being able to find the right balance for yourself. Everybody is different. There are players, maybe like Monfils who is very relaxed who can maybe use some of my uptightness. I don't know. I don't know him that well. I'm just trying to find an example, you know. But it's just everybody is so different, and there is not a golden formula that you can give a tennis player and say, Okay, these are the right things to do. Everybody has to find it for themself. I think that's what makes it so difficult for coaches, as well, to always get acquainted with the new player, and you can't just use the experience that you have had and that was successful with other players, because you have to get to know the new player and have to just find new ways to talk to them and new ways to relax them. So, yeah, that's definitely very difficult for tennis players, especially, but especially I think for athletes in general to find that balance. Q. Is there a player, male or female, that you admire or that you observe that's balanced, really carries off that relaxed feeling well in matches? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, for me, I think that says a lot. My two idols that I grew up were Steffi Graf, who is the stereotype German, and Serena Williams, who is probably the opposite of ‑‑not of a German but who is just that rebellious, rock 'n roll type of tennis players that brought new energy, brought something new to tennis and to the WTA. Steffi Graf, who was so disciplined and so controlled emotionally. I just admire both of them. I wish I could just have 5% of either one. I would be very happy. I would be a very happy girl. Q. Can you update us on your music? ANDREA PETKOVIC: My music right now? Right now I can't even say that my favorite song right now is Truffle Butter, which is very embarrassing, by Drake. It's very embarrassing. Don't listen to it. It's just a Miami thing. (Laughter.) Q.Is it vulgar? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yes, it is, definitely (laughter). The hormones, guys. Spring hormones. Q. I saw that on your Twitter, was it? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah. Q. I was wondering about the match today. I think it was 4‑4 you faced some break points. You ended up winning five games in a row. How important was that point for you to be able to, you know, avoid getting broken and then winning a bunch of games in a row? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, well, the thing ‑‑I was serving really well in the past matches, and then today when I started well, I won my service game 15, and then I go on the other side and I can't see the ball when I'm tossing. I totally lost the rhythm on my serve. So I was always, you know ‑‑every time I went to serve‑‑ I was playing so well from the back, but every time I went to serve, I felt a little insecurity, and that's just transformed to my game. When I was down, when it was 4‑All and 15‑40 and I had two break points I just sort of shoved it aside and I thought, Andrea, you can't think about your service too much. Just throw the ball up and hit it, and if it goes in, good for you. That's what I did, and I regained a little confidence in my serve. I served tremendously in the second set then. I think also mentally it's very difficult for Karolina now, if she had a few break points to go up 5‑4, to be serving for the set after being down 4‑1, to then hold your serve at 4‑5. I knew that, so I was really eager to put the ball into play and see what happens after that, because she serves very well. Q. After what you said about being a perfectionist, wanting to do everything perfectly, I guess the start of the season for you was just a pure nightmare. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah. Q. How did you switch this? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, the beginning of my season was actually the perfect example of wanting to do everything too perfectly, because I was so occupied in my mind with tennis all the time. Even when I was reading other stuff or when I was looking at art or whatever I was doing, that should have gotten my mind off tennis, I could only see tennis in everything. I just, when I was on court, I felt so stressed and so, like, in a full‑body cramp. I just didn't get too upset as I normally would, because I knew I was playing well in practice, and I knew what the thing was that I had to change. I just, at that moment, I couldn't change it. Also, in Australia, I had all my injuries there, and there is always something in the back of my mind. So everything coming together, I just didn't feel comfortable there at all. But as I said, in general, I didn't get too upset because I knew I was playing well, and I had great preparation and everything was there. I was in great shape. I just had to switch that mode in my head to be normal again. Q. When you are in one of those sort of cramped situations, you're losing, are you capable of saying to yourself, Let's do something goofy? Let's break out of this? Let's just do something different for the sake of it because you're going to lose? ANDREA PETKOVIC: You mean in the match? Q. Yeah, in the match. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, in the match it's very difficult, once I'm in a one‑rail sort of track. It's very difficult for me to get out there. I found now that I'm getting older, that I'm getting old, I found a few ways, and I have a few tricks, mental tricks that I can get myself out of the match and sort of reposition myself. It's not always working, but I have a few tricks. But when I'm on the tour and I played a few bad matches, I have my tricks now to get out of it, but I cannot share them here in press with you. (Laughter.) Q.Fearing you'll give away something? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, it's not child friendly, I guess. Q. Have you worked on it with a professional, like mental coach? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I have somebody that I work with. She's a woman and she's great. I worked with somebody else in the years before who was also good, but I needed something new, and I started working with her actually by the end of last year when I had a really troubled phase of my life. I started working with her, and she helped me tremendously. I really appreciate what she's done for me and how she's helped me. I think I found the right, yeah, the right mental coach for me now, you know. You develop. Phases in life change, so there always comes something new. You have to be always ready for everything. Right now I feel very comfortable with her, yeah. Q. If you don't want to answer this, that's fine, but the other day you said you acquired your first art piece for the upcoming Andrea Petkovic Museum. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Actually, I will buy a second one now. Q. Tyler Green and I were speculating as to what you might have bought. ANDREA PETKOVIC: I bought a Swedish artist, Jacob Fellander. He does photo art with‑‑ and he paints into it. Now I'm thinking of buying an Impressionist, French Impressionist. But I was very ‑‑I didn't know if I should do that before, but now that I play semifinals, I think I want to buy it. I just hope it's still available. Q. During Wimbledon last year, I was in town and Christie's and Sotheby's both had their big sales, 19th and 20th Century. And I tweeted you some of the pictures and I wanted you to go see the show to inspire you to win Wimbledon. $1 million. ANDREA PETKOVIC: That's too expensive for me. I'm just a beginner, you know. I have one art piece and now I'm already talking about it as if I'm the biggest collector ever. Q. If you weren't a tennis player, what do you think you would do? Art collector a gallery owner? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I would love to be something creative, but I guess I would just be a boring lawyer. I think I would be the most successful probably at something that is straightforward. But I would love to do something that is very creative, but unfortunately I have no original ideas whatsoever. Q. Where do you live now? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I live in Germany near Frankfurt, Darmstadt. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|