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WIMBLEDON

June 21, 2010

Elena Baltacha

LONDON, ENGLAND

P. MARTICH/E. Baltacha
2-6, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: First question for Elena.

Q. You served at 5-3, I think.
ELENA BALTACHA: 5-4, I served, yeah.

Q. You must have felt that you were close then.
ELENA BALTACHA: Do you know what? You know, I'll be honest. I was actually quite tight at 5-4. I was nervous. And, uhm, you know, I mean, the first set, up to 5-4, I was in control. Then obviously that game at 5-4, you know, I tried to stay as relaxed as I could.
I did get slightly tight. But, you know, I'm human. I'm not a machine. You know, sometimes things like that happen. You know, once I got broken, she played a big service game and she pretty much served consistently through the whole match.
I find it difficult to break her after that. Obviously, she got a sniff, and that's what happens. You let someone in, and then they kind of carry it away.
Then the game at 1-0 down in the third, I played another really bad service game. That pretty much gave her the lead. You know, I tried fighting back, just couldn't get it back.
But, you know, I was very close to making the second round.

Q. You served very well up until that point. You'd only faced one breakpoint until the end of the second set and saved that with an ace. Is it just that form comes and goes in the middle of a game? You hadn't tweaked anything?
ELENA BALTACHA: No, I find with my serve, it's kind of been good and then it kind of puts me in an awkward situation at times, especially over the last few weeks. I find that on the grass.
The problem is, if you don't make enough first-serve percentages, you're always giving them a second serve. On the grass, unless you're going to slice it or really go for your second serve, it's pretty much going to sit up.
You're right; my first-serve percentage got worse. Obviously, that caused me more problems because alls she was seeing was second serves.
That's one of the really big areas I can improve on. My serve needs to get better. You know, then obviously the better my serve will be, the more it will get me out of difficult situations.

Q. Did you feel yourself becoming tight right at the start of that game?
ELENA BALTACHA: At the 5-4 game?

Q. Yes.
ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I mean, I was quite nervous. Yeah, I mean, it was a big occasion. I was serving for the match at Wimbledon. Playing at Wimbledon, it's always very special. And every year I come to Wimbledon, I always want to do well, not just for myself, for my staff, but for the public as well. Unfortunately that didn't happen today.

Q. With all respect, why would you be nervous against a girl that never played at Wimbledon before when you're about to serve for the match?
ELENA BALTACHA: But what you have to understand is that, you know, this girl, she's at 77 in the world, so she's a good player. She's 19 years old. Regardless of whether she's played at Wimbledon or not, you know, she's got a big game and she's very talented and upcoming.
You know, yeah, I just got slightly nervous. But she's a very good player. I knew that she could be dangerous regardless of whether she's played at Wimbledon or not. She's got a very quick game. You know, respect her. She played pretty well.

Q. Do you feel under more pressure because you went into the match, you weren't the underdog this time?
ELENA BALTACHA: Uhm, I mean, obviously when you get to Wimbledon, yeah, of course you're gonna feel nervous. You know, you're a Brit. You're expected to do things. Of course, you are. But the thing is how you manage it. And I've always found that every time I come to Wimbledon I'm very excited. Especially this year, I felt much more relaxed coming into actually just the grass season full stop because I've had such a good year.
I knew in a way I kind of felt there was no pressure at all on me because I've already made up a lot of points during the year. I've been playing in really good form all year. I've had some big wins. I knew that coming into the grass, you know what, if I can deliver, if it didn't go my way, then that's okay, you know, because I'm on good form and I feel very confident.
I know that in the past few years, especially, I mean, I'm sure the other girls will say if you're a Brit going into the grass court season, you know you have to pick up points, because you don't know whether you're going to be able to pick up points later in the year.
I feel really confident that my game is really getting up there, I will be able to perform and pick up points for the rest of the year.
I think what's exciting is my ranking is 52 in the world. It's my career high. So I'm just really excited by that. I know that my tennis is going to go forwards. From whatever happened today, I'm going to go home, I'm going to learn, that's it. You move forwards. You can't have things your own way all the time.

Q. You seem remarkably, impressively matter of fact about it. Are you sort of somewhere inside a lot more disappointed and putting on a brave face?
ELENA BALTACHA: You know what, I am disappointed. Don't get me wrong. Obviously Wimbledon is very special to me. I've had great memories here at Wimbledon.
I think with age, the experiences I've had, you kind of realize, you know what, all you can do is try a hundred percent, and I did that today. Yeah, I'm disappointed. But, you know what, I'm 52 in the world.
I'm getting there. I'm rising up the rankings. I'm improving. It is the way it is.
You've got to learn. You've got to move on. You've got to get better. That's what I'm going to do.

Q. So Wimbledon is not the be-all and end-all?
ELENA BALTACHA: No. Don't get me wrong, Wimbledon is very special to me. It's a Grand Slam at home and it's a great opportunity. But, you know, we've got the rest of the year. I've still got another six months to go.

Q. If nerves affected you at all, is that something you can do work on in the future or work with somebody already to help conquer that?
ELENA BALTACHA: I have a really good team of people that work with me. You know, no matter what, they're always there for me.
It's one of these things where you can have that in matches. I mean, I had that earlier in the year where you could be on one of the back courts somewhere and all of a sudden you just get a bit of nerves.
But it's, you know, how you deal with it afterwards. That's the most important thing. We're going to go back. I'm going to talk to Nino about it and the rest of my team. You know, I'm going to be honest about why I got nervous and we're going to try to put a solution for it that it can stop it from happening in the future.

Q. Is there someone in your team that specifically deal with minds?
ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, Nino Severino is my coach. His background is from karate and kickboxing. One of the amazing things he's brought to me is that in his sport, if you're not switched on from the very first second, you're going to get badly hurt. Obviously, tennis is not quite the same. You're not going to get like a ball hit you in the face or anything like that, you're going to get seriously hurt.
But what it's made me realize, you have to be mentally really strong and you've got to be there all the time. That's the biggest thing that he's brought into my game that I'm improved in.

Q. Bearing in mind all the stick that British players got last year, I know you were one of the few British winners, was that on your mind at all? Has that been a subject of conversation amongst the British players?
ELENA BALTACHA: You know, not really. You know, I understand you guys have got deadlines, you have to put things in the paper, you've got to sell the papers. I think that's what kind of what I've learned, as well, being around the tournaments. Obviously, this is my ninth Wimbledon. That's the way it is. You know, you've got to deal with it. You can't take it personally. This is business. This is business at the end of the day.
I'm striving to be the best that I can be. That's the only thing that matters to me is just getting myself in the right state and improving and getting better.

Q. You left the court for a comfort break after the second set. Are you allowed to speak to Nino after the break?
ELENA BALTACHA: I actually left the court because I was dying to go to the toilet. It wasn't anything tactical. I drank a lot, make sure I was hydrated. I actually genuinely needed to go to the toilet. That's why I went.

Q. What did you say to yourself during the break?
ELENA BALTACHA: No, of course, you know, I went to the toilet, you know, and it was like, Right, okay, well, okay, that was interesting, but, you know, you've got to start again. That's the way it is.
I managed to get my head up for it. I came out and I did the best that I could.

Q. Petra said on court she felt that because the British crowd were quite quiet, she felt like she was playing at home. Do you think that's a fair reflection? There wasn't enough roar for you?
ELENA BALTACHA: I think the public were really great. I mean, I think there were some guys in the front row that were singing some songs with my name in there.
No, I think the public are always great at Wimbledon every year that I'm here, regardless of whether I play singles, mixed doubles, or doubles. They always get up for the British players. They're always great.

Q. Would you like more vocal support sometimes?
ELENA BALTACHA: Would I like more vocal support?

Q. Yes.
ELENA BALTACHA: Do you know what? I'm out there by myself. When I travel, sometimes I don't get any support apart from Nino. And as a player, and this is what I've learnt with experience as well, you're out there for yourself. It doesn't matter whether you're getting booed, you're getting cheered, you're there for yourself and you've got to perform for yourself.
So I'm really not -- you know, I think the public are always nice to me, always, especially here at Wimbledon, always. It's kind of, you know, regardless to me whether they cheer more or not.

Q. What would you hope to achieve by the end of the year?
ELENA BALTACHA: I'm looking at the top 50 mark. Obviously I'm at 52. I haven't defended a round here so it probably means I'm going to drop a bit. I haven't actually checked to see where I'm going to drop to.
You know, it's exciting. I'm getting closer and closer to that top 50. That is the next big goal for me, to get to that top 50. Then obviously from there, you know, to kind of review the goal and hopefully just keep pushing forward.

Q. Are you defending many points between now and the US Open?
ELENA BALTACHA: No, I'm actually not. The next points I'm defending would be in Toronto. I qualified last year. I played Kim in the first round. Then I made last round qualifying of the US Open. So in total, it's about a hundred points.
But my next tournament's going to be the two WTAs in Europe. Then we're going to fly over to America for Cincinnati, obviously start the lead-up to the US Open.

Q. So a good chance to be in the top 50 by then perhaps?
ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I really hope so. Yeah, I really hope so. Actually, obviously because I'm still playing doubles, hopefully I'll be playing in the mixed doubles hopefully once Wimbledon has finished for me. Then we can go home and we can really chip away at this serve and a few other areas that, you know, I can look back today on the match. Hopefully I'll get a DVD, sit down, go through it with Nino, see what we can improve for the US Open hard courts.

End of FastScripts

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