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MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAUApril 2, 2015Andrea PetkovicMIAMI, FLORIDA C. SUAREZ NAVARRO/A. Petkovic THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Previously you have talked about how you like the vibe the and energy in Miami. Do you think that helped you in your semifinal run here? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, it didn't help me today. (Laughter.) But, no, I love it here. I love Miami. I think the atmosphere is great. The fans are really unique here, and it's just a pleasure to play here. Today was not a big pleasure, but that wasn't the audience's fault. It was my own fault. Q. Was there anything today about your opponent in the match this surprised you? ANDREA PETKOVIC: No, no, no. I played here a lot of times. I think Carla just plays really well this season and really upped her game in the last year. It's really nice to see. But I think today was just all about me. I was just very stressed and I was pretty awful throughout the whole match. I tried to fight myself into the match, but there were just so many unforced errors from my side. You're not going to win a match at that level at that stage of a tournament with so many unforced errors. Yeah, she's just been playing really great the whole season, so there was no surprise for me at all. Q. (No microphone.) ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, we really get along great. She's such a nice girls and I wish her all the best. You know, I can sort of take myself out of it and watch it from a neutral position. I'm just happy for everything that comes her way, because she's always been humble and a nice girl. She never changed. Whatever her ranking and whatever her game was, she was always the same. I really appreciate that in players. She played well today. Wasn't like she was‑‑ I wasn't as good, but that's also a little bit because your opponent doesn't let you play well. So just because I was awful today doesn't mean that you shouldn't respect the performance of your opponent. She did a great job throughout the whole tournament, and I wish her all the best. Q. When you say she is humble, what does that mean for you? In what regard? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, for me, humble is just when somebody I guess stays the same throughout their whole career no matter how much she achieves. If they are down, injured, if they are on top of world, if they always are nice, always the same, always approaching people the same way and very respectful, for me, that is the part of being humble. She's always been that way, and I really appreciate that and respect that. Not only in players, just in human beings in general. Yeah, it's really, really nice to see that you can be successful with this attitude as well. Q. Carla has been playing really well all year. The surface here I've been told is playing more slow, more like clay. Can you comment some on the surface? And also, your thoughts on how that might work in Carla's favor possibly tomorrow. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, the hard court is definitely a slow hard court. It's definitely slower. I think the hard court in Indian Wells is exactly the same. It's just that the air is so dry there and the ball flies so it makes the play a little faster. But here with the humidity and the pressure, it just makes the ball slow. It maybe favors players with more topspin. But then again, it also favors those players that like it hit hard, because the ball is not flying as much as in Indian Wells. I think it's actually really good surface for any type of player. You can use it for your advantage. If you play slice, it going to take your slice; if you play spin, it's going to take your spin. If you play fast, you can hit winners a well. I think it's a great surface just for any type of player, but it's definitely a slow hard court, yeah. Q. She's back in the top 10; you would've been too with this match. Did that play on your mind at all? And talk about the one‑handed backhand. There are not that many that play with that style in the top 10. What does that mean for tennis? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I actually didn't know that. I don't really watch the rankings during the tournaments, just after. I think it's great. It's just great for tennis to have different types of players, I think. I think now with the young players coming up, like Pliskova Muguruza, the hard hitters that play so fast and serve so well, it's really nice to see somebody like Carla that has some variety in her game and that's just‑‑ are you typing while I am ‑‑ that's amazing. Good job. It's really nice to see that she has so much variety in her game and the one‑handed backhand. The difference between the one‑handed backhand, playing a one‑hand backhand and a two‑handed backhand is it goes off the court much more. It makes you move that one step further. Then when you have a double‑handed backhand and you don't get it on the rise, you're immediately on the back foot. Then she can step in and open the court to the other side. So I think that's the difference. And I had the honor the playing Justine Henin when I was very young, 19, shortly before she retired. It was the same thing: she just made you move that one step further on your backhand side and was opening the court. So I think that's the advantage. Q. Last thing: The fact that you don't see it very often at the high level, does that make it harder to play? You're not used to it? Does that throw you off? ANDREA PETKOVIC: It's not like that it's‑‑ subconsciously it's harder I think because you always have that feeling that you're late, even though she's not the fastest hitter. She always gives you the feeling that you're sort late on your strokes because you have to move the one extra step, which makes two extra steps over there. Then you're always a little off striking zone, I goes. Q. Hearing your team today, it was all Idemos and Ajdes. Were they trying to get your Serbian blood flowing? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, my team is just great. They saw that I was very stressed and moody today. They just tried to give me positive energy. They did a great job. But as I said, I was just very stressed and struggling with my mood today. They couldn't really help me. Only Jesus Christ himself could have helped me today probably. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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