	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 15, 2011

Andrea Petkovic

CINCINNATI, OHIO

A. PETKOVIC/J. Gajdosova
5-7, 7-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What's your reaction to a match like that?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I feel terrible. I feel awful, really, because Jarka was playing incredible. She was just hitting winners all over, and I just I was like -- I don't know how long we played, but let's say two hours 40, and I felt like I was in the defense all the time.
That's not a good feeling, especially for a player like me who likes to be the dominant one. So I just felt terrible all the time. I don't know how I pulled it out, but I'm thrilled that I did.

Q. You seemed to get frustrated with yourself in the third set.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, you know, I was -- still I'm really tired and I didn't expect to play today, so I was not really -- well, I was prepared to play, but I was really tired. When I get tired I get easily frustrated.
So I think that was just the case. But I just have doubles tomorrow, so I hope I can recover for the next singles and then be better and ready and faster hopefully on court.

Q. So you have a new Petko Dance now. This is the second time you've used it?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I started it in Carlsbad, I think, so it's just, yeah, it's a little inspiration that came when I won my first match there. It was a night session, so I felt like giving back to the audience. (Laughter.)
Q. Is this one working for you, do you think, or do you think you'll make a new one for the US Open? It will be the one year anniversary of starting it.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, that's true. Well, it's working for me so far. You know, it's a little easier than the other ones because I don't have to move so much. And after a match like today I was too tired, so maybe I'll keep it for that.

Q. How would you describe it to people that don't know what it is?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I don't know what it is myself, so it's quite tough. It was just really an inspiration. I don't even know where it came from or where I saw it. I can't think of it. It was just the first thing that came to my mind.
But I really liked the Monfils one. He told me he's going to do one for me in Wimbledon, but he didn't, and so now he did The Dougie in Montreal, and I was very pleased to see that.

Q. You are top 10 now for the first time. Last year you were unseeded.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: But I dropped out already. (Laughing.) So not for long.

Q. But you're a single-digit seed here.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Okay.

Q. And last year you were completely unseeded. Has it been reflecting on this past 12 months.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, it's been a really good year, especially this one. I started this year off I think 33 or 34, and now I'm 11, 10, whatever.
Yeah, it's been a good year. I improved a lot of things. I improved mentally a lot. I have the experience now to compete on the big matches, to not mess up anymore like I did the years before.
So I think, yeah, it's going well. But also I still have when I am on court so many more things I feel like I have to improve, like 156 or more.
And as long as I have that feeling, that gives me the motivation to still step out on court and just practice and try to get better.
On days like today, I feel like I suck really, so...

Q. You've had a lot of success in social media stuff before you had success on court. You're well-known for that. Do you think that success gave you confidence, that you were somehow able to translate that into tennis success?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I don't know. That's a good question. Do you have a psychologist here? Maybe he can help.
Well, I don't know. You know what I try to do, because when I used to watch tennis I always saw these serious faces and fighting, competitive spirit on court, which is also great to see and I admired all the time.
But when I got myself into the world of tennis and I met all those people and they're fun and normal people, yeah, just great to be around, I wanted to kind of show that other side of tennis players, that they are not these robots and machines that fans see on TV all the time.
And also, like for example today, I was tired, I was frustrated. If somebody sees me today for the first time he's going to hate me because I acted like a little baby, and I know that.
But actually I can be nice as well. I just feel like showing the other parts of tennis players as well, not just this professional attitude that we try to live out on court. That's what I try to share with the fans, and I think they really appreciate it.
Also, the most important thing is to stay true to yourself. That's what I try to do. It gets a little tougher the more hype you get and the more people want something from you. It gets tougher.
But I think I'm quite well in managing to stay myself - so far at least.

Q. You said that you were getting tired in the third set. Were you tired going into today's match, or you just hit a wall at some point?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I don't know. I really today, like I felt - which I never had in my life before, and that's why I got so frustrated also - I felt like I didn't have the energy to fight anymore.
There was a point in the first two games of the second set where I just didn't know where I can get the energy from to fight back and come back and try to turn this match around.
I was just sitting there and was like, Okay, I really want to win, but I don't know how. I don't have the energy. I don't know where to get it from.
And so I won one game at 2-0 a little bit lucky, and then I called my coach. He was like, Okay, I don't care how this match end, just try to fight. Try to be a champion on court and don't act like a little baby. I was like, Yeah, I can't. (Laughing.) So it was actually quite funny.
But, yeah, I just try to take the energy from my team. Sometimes you can do it. It's not very often. But I just try get the positive energy out of them, because I just didn't feel like I have more energy left in myself, which I never felt before.
I don't know, probably was -- I was a little sick in Carlsbad and everything coming together, and the Radwanska match was emotionally really, really tough. She played incredible. So I think everything coming together.
Yeah, but it's going to be better for sure. I don't want to cry here after winning.

Q. You obviously won in three sets in Miami against Caroline Wozniacki. You also have had some matches against big players like Sharapova in Australia and Kvitova last week. You beat them very soundly scoreline-wise. What do you think it is in your game that allows you to sort of redline through a match like that?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think first of all, I'm not really scared of other girls. I don't care who they are. I also lose against them quite easily. Against Maria Sharapova I had no chance in the French Open, so that also happens to me.
But first of all, when I play them, I'm not scared. I'm like, Okay, let's see what happens. I think this is the most important part. Because if you go into the matches and you're scared of the others, it can already reflect on your game. So this is the first thing.
And the second thing, when I play really well, when I hit ball well, it's tough because I play really fast and I try to dominate the game.
But I have to say also Petra and Maria both didn't player their best in these matches when I beat them, so I was also a little bit lucky. It's always two things coming together.
Maria paid it back to me at the French Open; with Petra I'm tied at 3-All. Everything comes back always, and I just try to improve.

Q. Is that lack of fear something you've always had?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, it's just not in my genes. I don't know. Yesterday, for example, if you want to listen to a story, I'm not sure if I'm getting crazy, because I was in the bathroom and I saw - I swear - a spider like this on my head.
So I freaked out. I went out, and I was 20 minutes sitting in the corner of my room. Finally I had the courage to go back, and there was no spider. In my head it was like this on my head. So now I'm thinking I'm crazy and I'm having hallucinations because it's not there. It's gone. I'm crazy.
So I would rather have seen it and freaked out again, but not thinking I am crazy. Now I think I'm crazy for sure.
But that's just a side story. (Laughing.)

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297