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SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERS

October 10, 2011

Mao-Xin Gong

SHANGHAI, CHINA

D. YOUNG/M. Gong
6-1, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Chinese.

Q. What is your take of this competition? Since you have taken on a French coach, any changes?
MAO-XIN GONG: First, I think the previous match, we all had some confidence before the match. However, due to my lack of experience with top 100 players, I think I wasn't resolute, I wasn't determined enough for lack of experience once again and I wasn't quite adapted to his approach and strategy. That's why I was defeated by a large margin.
In the second set, some of you may have noticed there were some opportunities on my side. I wasn't aggressive or resolute enough. There were some breakpoints I didn't take unfortunately.
With regard to your second question, I have been training with him for one or two months. I think usually it's a long and slow process. I think you may not have noticed too many changes. I think with my serving, it's becoming more accurate. Secondly, I'm becoming more confident mentally.
Like I said in the China Open press conference, my coach always told me that I'm no worse than anyone else. He always tries to pump me up, so I felt a little bit more confident.

Q. Is it because of a lot of comments from your French coach that you worked on the previous strategy?
MAO-XIN GONG: Yes. Again, I think my tactics were right. It's when I was forcing my strategy, I wasn't determined enough which resulted in my failure.

Q. Donald Young is a young players from the United States. Our Chinese players are older or his same age. When you are competing with a younger player from a more advanced country, do you still feel a gap?
MAO-XIN GONG: Yes. Even though they are young, they still compete in the same community. We are more senior in age, but we've never become a true member of this community, this advanced, world-leading community.
This year I think it's a little better, a lot better than the previous few years. We are training together with some international peers who are leading the world. Sometimes we also put our signatures on those signing grounds.

Q. You talk about getting involved in this community. Do you think getting involved in this community is the only way forward?
MAO-XIN GONG: I think, first of all, we need to improve our ability. Without a higher capability, without a better performance, we will never become a full member of this community. But if you really train well, if we were given wild cards on our home turf, we seize this opportunity and we really do well.
But if you cannot take the opportunity, you will never make yourself a member of that community.

Q. Take yourself as an example. What is the mix of your international and domestic competitions?
MAO-XIN GONG: Usually, generally speaking, if there are competitions domestically we will compete. Together, me and Li Zhe, in terms of doubles scoring, we are ranked very high. There is no reason for us to compete a lot in China as doubles. We compete a lot more overseas in doubles. We play in Europe and the United States.
I think their style is different, their tennis style is quite different from Asian countries, from China. The Asian tennis style is not that aggressive in serving, but it's quite a different story in the United States, North America and Spain.

Q. Do you find any obstacles in going abroad?
MAO-XIN GONG: I think it's okay, not too many difficulties. If you are not ranked very high, if you are not ranked in the main game, only in the qualifier game, then you might think twice before you go there. You would love to get enough credit before you decide to go abroad.

Q. Do you think American or European games are more beneficial?
MAO-XIN GONG: I think Europe is stronger because they have (indiscernible) a lot more. If you want to really make improvement, we need to experience a lot of different styles of tennis. All those players have a lot of different styles, unlike the Asian players who don't serve very aggressively.

Q. From a longer perspective, if you opt for more European competitions and matches, will you get more benefit? But if you have to do that, you will have to do that after the Olympics of 2012, is that true?
MAO-XIN GONG: It's not exactly true that European competition will always be like the best opportunity because if you compete in Europe, you will always be eliminated in the first or the second round. But if you compete here, you could enter into further rounds.
I think the best scenario is for you to do better and gradually you can become a member of the community, then it will be more valuable.

Q. From a London Olympics perspective, you and Li are partners. Have you been designated as the Olympic team? Has the national team made any decision with regard to the designated Olympic pairs?
MAO-XIN GONG: I'm not quite sure. I have been working with Li Zhe a little bit more frequently. From my personal point of view, I want to compete in the Olympics, so I will seize any opportunity to try to get as much credits and rankings as possible.

Q. Li Zhe said the tennis environment isn't ideal. Do you have any regrets about China's tennis culture? He thought of himself as a foreigner and a previous generation and would like to contribute to later generations. What is your take on that?
MAO-XIN GONG: Actually, when I started training as a tennis player, I never thought of becoming an international professional. I was completely based on domestic ground. I never competed when I was a teenager, competed in the international game. I think we started off pretty late, but we are still perservering.
Actually there are some players who became professional at the age of 27, 28, but they still made it into the top 100. Eventually what you deserve will come your way.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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