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CHINA OPEN

October 5, 2015

Andrea Petkovic

BEIJING, CHINA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you talk about particularly when Genie retired, it looked like you shared some words. What did you tell her and what did she tell you?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, it came at the same time as a surprise and not as a surprise. Obviously I knew what happened during the US Open and her struggles before. But I thought that she played really well in the match.
Obviously she probably wasn't as focused as normally, I would say, or maybe she couldn't, like, keep up the focus for each and every point. But I felt like she was hitting the ball well. And I was playing really well, too.
Really, I was focused on myself. I didn't look on the other side at all. I really didn't see it coming in that particular moment.
So I just asked her what happened, and she told me that she felt very dizzy. Then I asked if it was the same, if it still was the concussion. She said, yeah, it tends to come back when she gets physically very active. I think she did say that, that's my words now.
But also with the stress, when it's a lot of people, adrenaline, it does stuff with your brain if you're healthy (smiling), so imagine having an injury.
That's just my interpretation maybe of the whole situation.
I just said I feel it's really bad luck because I thought she was playing so well again and I hope she gets better and keeps up her good play.

Q. When you go into a match like that, you were mentioning everybody knows what happened to her at the US Open, is it more difficult or is it a priority for you to just focus on what you're doing? It looked like you were intentionally just focusing on you and not focusing on what she was doing.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yes. The thing is, you know, you've been around the tennis tour a lot, people talk. It's all they have to do it seems in this world. So everybody comes to you and has an opinion on what is happening.
Some say, like, She has nothing, I saw her practicing really hard. The other one's like, She's not going to play, she's not going to even come on court.
Sometimes for the opponent it's a really tricky situation when you're not really sure about the state of health of the other girl because everybody has an opinion and everybody thinks they know it best.
That's why maybe I was definitely even more focused than I am normally and tried really to just see my things and just do what's best for me and not even look on the other side.
The only thing, as I mentioned before, I feel like she was hitting the ball really well, which I didn't see in the first half of the year maybe. Like the impact was really good. That's how I felt.

Q. Setting her aside, how happy were you with that first set? You've been coming off some rough draws. Were you pleased with how you played?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I was. I was particularly happy with my serve because that was a thing I was struggling with in the past weeks. I really put in a lot of serves in my practice sessions and really worked on that to get a little more pop on it and get the percentage up higher. So I was really pleased with that. And also the first ball after the serve is something I really worked on.
I felt like a few things I have been working on in practice in the past weeks came together today. Sometimes, you know, you work on things for such a long time and you expect them to happen in the matches and they just don't happen or the other girl doesn't give you the chance to make them happen. Today I was really pleased with some things that I had worked on, that they came together.

Q. You have Sam Stosur next. What are your thoughts on that match, considering you have had some epic matches in the last year or two?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: It's funny, because coincidentally we played a practice match before the draw came out. It was a great practice session. We really played well, both of us. We came out early, quite early on court. It was 9:00 a.m., I think. She served tremendously well.
When I saw her in my part of the section, I was like, Yeah! So sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad when you practice before.
But I'm quite aware of how well she's playing right now, if you take that practice match. Especially serving really well. I think the surface also favors her kick serve a little bit here. It really jumps and really takes on the speed and the spin.
So, you know, I'm just going to try to focus as today. If I can show the same performance that I did in the first set today, I'm definitely going to get my chances. But it's not going to be easy if she serves well obviously. So I have to serve well, as well.

Q. Last week in Wuhan, you told the umpire that English people know how to behave. It's everywhere in social media. The fans talked a lot about it.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: What did I say? I didn't get it.

Q. English people know how to behave.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Oh, that, yeah.

Q. Would you like to comment on that.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I didn't mean it in general. I meant on tennis courts. I think that's not a thing that is surprising because I wouldn't know how to behave in, let's say, a badminton match or a table tennis match because we don't have it in Germany that much. And I think tennis is a new kind of sport in China. In Beijing, the tournament has been here for a very long time and you can really see the difference between Wuhan and Beijing.
The guards made some mistakes. They let in people during play, during rallies. That's not the type of behavior we are used to, you know. It wasn't meant like in a rude way, not at all. It was just meant in a way that, you know, they need to learn. I think they will because here in Beijing it's perfect after a few years of the tournament.
So it wasn't meant in a rude way. If somebody took it in a wrong way, then I'm really sorry because I didn't mean to offend anybody.

Q. Quite a few players have been in this room or in Wuhan saying they're tired, it's tough to motivate this section of the season. I'm posing the question to you. What are you playing for during these last few weeks? What motivates you?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I don't have that problem. I just didn't win the matches that I needed to win.
I guess, as I said before, I was working on a lot of things that I felt like I need to improve, especially after the matches I had at the US Open. Not at the US Open, but the American tour where I played Serena and Simona, the world No. 1 and No.2 players respectively.
That was really I wouldn't say a turning point, but it was really two matches that motivated me, remotivated me maybe, in the second part of my career now where I felt like I need to improve things in order to get back to the top.
So I've been really working on that. That's why I took the losses in Wuhan and Guangzhou quite hard because I felt like things were not coming together. That's why I think that's the motivation for me to see it come together, because I have worked a lot and I have put in some extra work.
I think that's the only way how you can get over the tiredness, still going out there and keep working until you're on vacation and then you can drink beer and relax (smiling).

Q. You are close to Jankovic. In terms of your personality, do you have some similarities between you and Jankovic? Do you have common hobbies?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, we are close friends actually, Jankovic and I. We play doubles occasionally. We wanted to play doubles in Wuhan, as well. We just didn't get the top 20 wild card. That was a pity.
I love this girl. You know, she's very dynamic. She's extroverted. She's got everything going for her. I just enjoy being around her because she sort of has this positivity around her.
I don't, however, think that we are that much alike. Maybe we are, I don't know. It's not up to me to judge. But I just really like her, respect her tremendously as an athlete. She does some incredible stuff, some incredible physical stuff. She was the No.1 player in the world.
What I love most about her probably is her head. She respects everybody, but she doesn't respect anybody, if that makes any sense. But it's really nice to have sometimes.

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