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BARCLAYS DUBAI TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS WOMEN

February 15, 2010

Sania Mirza

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

ANABEL MEDINA GARRIGUES/S. Mirza
6-3, 6-4

Q. You really managed to take control of the match. What made the difference in the end?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, I mean, I wasn't playing well from the beginning. So even when, I mean, we were level at 3-All, honestly, I was not feeling great the way I was hitting the ball. And my wrist was bothering me, and a lot of things were going on. So it was, obviously the furthest from my best performance.
But, you know, she stuck through it. Obviously, I had my chances which I didn't take, and she took them so that made the difference, I guess.

Q. Were you worried about your wrist? Because you've had had so many problems with it before?
SANIA MIRZA: Yeah, of course. I think a lot is also a bit mental. You know, when something that was so -- was a career-threatening injury, and it starts to come back, you obviously start having a lot of thoughts in the middle of the match. So, yeah, I started to think. And it was swollen, and the doctor came and she said she can't do anything except tape it. So she just taped it, and you know, I took a few antiinflammatories for the pain.
But you're thinking of a lot of other things when something like that is happening in the middle of the match, which is not good, but it's human, I guess.

Q. Did you get a specialist to look at it now?
SANIA MIRZA: I've not had time. I'm going to go.

Q. Will that be the next step?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, probably. After I finish dope testing.

Q. Serving seemed to be a problem for both of you out there. It was more a case of who was going to hold serve rather than who was going to break, wasn't it?
SANIA MIRZA: I mean, it's women's tennis. I mean, you know, it's tough.
I don't think we were serving badly, it was what was happening after we served. I mean, I don't know about her, but I was struggling to keep the ball inside the court. It's tough when you're not finding the ball. It's one of those days where the court seems small, the ball seems small, everything seems like that big.
So to me that was the issue. I don't know about her, honestly.

Q. You mentioned the word "struggling." That is the word for your form all year. You haven't been doing particularly well. How concerned are you? What is the reason for that?
SANIA MIRZA: I think it's as a tennis player or as a sports person, you go through a lot of ups and downs in your career. And you go through good patches and bad patches, and that is something that we have to deal with as athletes. It's like your good day at work and bad day at work. For us it happens every week, every day.
So it's just something you have to fight through and hope that things change and turn around, because they have to. At some point, they will.
You know, you win one of those ugly matches and you suddenly get your confidence back. But right now, honestly, that's not my major concern. My main concern is my wrist which I kind of have to sort out.

Q. Do you feel as though you're a home favorite here whenever you play in the UAE?
SANIA MIRZA: Yeah, of course. There is so much support, you know. Because of the large community that lives here with Indians, Pakistanis, and all of us. So it's obviously very good too play here in front of the crowd.
I think this is the first time that I've played in the day on Centre Court. I usually play at night. So, yeah, it's always good to come back.

Q. Do you try especially hard to satisfy the crowds, to please the fans because there are so many of them here?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, I think you give your best no matter whether you have fan support or not, but that's secondary. But, yeah, I do think they get you going and stuff like that.
But, with the effort, I think you have to give 100% no matter where you are.

Q. What is the next tournament you're playing?
SANIA MIRZA: I was supposed to play in Malaysia, but now that my wrist is hurting, I'll have to see whether I'm going to go there or not or go and see my doctor in India.

Q. Are you hoping to have success in the doubles tournament? Are you planning to play more doubles tournaments?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, actually, I tried to cut down on doubles this year, because I was struggling with my wrist so much the last couple of years. Playing so many matches, so, but, yeah, me and my partner do well together. Unfortunately, in the Australian Open he got injured. But I'm playing with Ruano Pascual for the beginning of the year this year, which is obviously one of the most -- best doubles players ever and one of the most experienced doubles players ever.
I enjoy playing doubles, but at the moment, singles is my priority.

Q. Have the doctors said the wrist is a long-term problem or do you expect it to heal completely?
SANIA MIRZA: You know, it's complicated when you're dealing with a wrist. For one, is supposed to be one of the most complicated joints in your body. Two, I think the way my grip is, that's something that's basically overuse of my wrist which has happened over the last 15, 16 years.
So unless I change my grip, which is not going to happen, I think that's something that I'm going to have to deal with for the rest of my career. It's about how to manage it, rather than how to prevent it, because that's something unless I go off the tour for like two years.
I spoke to Kim when she had come back and she had gone out with a wrist as well. And, you know, she said that now she feels fine, after like two years or two-and-a-half years of not playing. So, you know, it's something that we have to manage, I guess.

Q. Has it been suggested to you that you should change your grip?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, it's common sense with what's going on with my wrist, with what all the doctors have looked at it and stuff like that. Because it hurts at certain positions, and it hurts, you know, today it was hurting me when I was trying to change direction of the ball. So that doesn't help in a match if you can't change direction.
So, you know, it hurts when I stretched out a forehand. It hurts when I try to hit a hard backhand crosscourt. So, you know, it's tough when you're playing with that and then mentally you're struggling thinking, "oh, great, the wrist is back." "Oh, how am I going to deal with it?" I was thinking in the match, "okay, what am I going to do? Do I play Malaysia? Do I go back home? Do I see my doctor?" All these things are going on in your head at that point in time.

Q. Would it be fair to say that the injury was the main reason for your defeat out there?
SANIA MIRZA: No, I don't think so. Not to take nothing away from her. She's 32 in the world or 33 in the world. We've played a couple of times before, and she's a very good player, no doubt about that.
Yeah, I mean, of course, if I was healthier I probably think that I could have won, but, you know, you can't really do ifs and buts. There are no excuses.
Of course, I was not playing the way I wanted to play or the way I should have played during that match.

Q. Do you think you're at a stage in your career, is your best tennis ahead of you, do you think?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, I think so. I think I'm improving every day if not game-wise, but mentally, and you're maturing every day.
But, like I said, most importantly is to be healthy, and you know, that's something that a lot of us are struggling to do with the amount of tennis that we play and the amount of workload that we put in.
So, yeah, I hope that my best tennis is in front of me. I'm still young, I guess. Not that young, but young.

Q. How disappointing is it to go out in such an early round in Dubai?
SANIA MIRZA: Well, obviously you don't want to lose whether it's in Dubai or anywhere else, in the first round.
But having said all that I've said, and having feeling the things in my wrist, I've been feeling it for a couple of days, so it just kept getting worse every day. So it's, of course, it's very disappointing. But it's just the way it is. You've got to move on. We deal with this every week. You know, I have to come back and play doubles tomorrow. And I have to get myself back together and try to be positive.

Q. You say you have to come back and play doubles. Has it crossed your mind that you might not play doubles?
SANIA MIRZA: You know, honestly I have not had time to think. Because I went and I showered, and I just came here. So I need to talk to my partner. You know, we have to look at a lot of things when you're playing doubles.
I'm playing with a person who plays just doubles. It's not fair that she's come all the way from Spain and I say, oh, my wrist is a bit sore.
It hurts me when I stretch more on my forehand and on my backhand. So, obviously, in singles it's much worse, because I have to move a lot more. In doubles it's kind of half court. You're playing half the amount of balls, I guess. So I'll see how I feel. I'll try to ask them to put a late match tomorrow so I can get some rest in.

Q. Have you thought that there's a doctor here, will you consult him?
SANIA MIRZA: I didn't know there was a doctor. Well, we'll see. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do. Obviously I'm going to go see the physios at the moment and we'll take it from there.

End of FastScripts

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