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TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 24, 2011Caroline WozniackiISTANBUL, TURKEY THE MODERATOR: She has held the No. 1 ranking for what will now be 54 weeks. From Denmark, the No. 1 player in the world, Caroline Wozniacki. First question, please, and give us a second to get a microphone over to you. Q. Just wanted to ask you if you had reflected on the earthquake in Turkey and perhaps if you had received messages from friends or family in connection with that. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, first I just want to say on behalf of all the players that we are, all our thoughts are with everyone affected, and of course it's never nice when something like this happens. I definitely got a few messages yesterday and just asking if everything was okay and if we're all okay here. So, yeah, we did. Q. You have a very good chance to win the year-end No. 1. Along with winning this week, what would that mean to you in terms of what you've achieved so far in your career? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, of course when you've been No. 1 pretty much the whole year, you'd like to finish the last week, as well, as No. 1. That would mean a lot to me since, you know, it's not a lot of people have finished a year two times and especially not two times in a row as No. 1. So definitely that's something that I would like to do. Q. Is it an extra motivational factor this week, or is this week enough in itself? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, of course. Well, I go out there and I just want to try to play my best, and hopefully that's good enough. If I do well, then the ranking and everything comes out automatically. So I'm just thinking about the match, to be honest. Q. The first career title you won was here in Istanbul. Now you're here for a much, much bigger tournament. How does that feel for you? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, it's nice to be back, and I remember being here playing a 25,000 in Istanbul and winning. Yeah, I always like the -- I always like Turkey and Istanbul. I think it's a great city. Yeah, it's great that we have a big tournament here and that the year ends in such a nice place. Q. Can you say something about secret, I ask you a secret? What do you say to yourself when you are many times and you battle to come back, and you come back in the game? What do you say to yourself exactly? Do you say, I cannot lose that match? I have to win? Or something more? Maybe some bad words just to motivate? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: No, I'm a fighter. I never give up. So I just take one point at a time, and the match is never over until the last match has been played. Q. Can you explain why in women match there are so many ups and downs? Do you think is connected with the feelings women have, is connected with the gap which is not so big between the players, is the pressure? Is what? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, I don't think it's only in women's matches. I mean, if you look at the men's, as well. You know, it's tennis. The ball is round. You have to play over the net and inside the lines. If you're behind, you try every possibility to try to find a new way to try to win. It's normal that it might change and switch momentums. Doesn't matter if it's women's or men's matches. Q. Did you fly in from Denmark yesterday or day before? When did you arrive here? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I flew in from Monaco on Thursday. Q. Did you fly Turkish Airlines? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yes. Q. From what destination? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: From Nice straight to Istanbul. Q. You're planning an exhibition in Belgium in December, I heard. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yes. Q. Against Kim? What are your thoughts about that? Why did you plan? Why did you take it in your schedule? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, I think playing Kim in Belgium will be great, and, you know, she's a great girl. So we will have fun. To play an exhibition in the offseason is also nice, because you can play some points and try to get the feeling how it is to play two sets or three sets. Yeah, I just got asked and I thought this was a great opportunity. Q. Do you plan other exhibitions in November/December? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yes, I'm playing in Bratislava on the 21st of November. And I'm playing in Thailand on the 1st of January. Q. Do you know against who in Thailand? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yes, Victoria Azarenka. Q. Actually, I didn't think to ask a question, but my colleague asked your flight and your airlines. I say I make a comment for it. Before your face of Turkish Airlines, Turkish people see the tennis, focused on Sharapova's beauty and her screams, of course. But after that, the people watch the commercials of Turkish Airlines and think, saw the Danish baby that play tennis in the tennis world. So you may be the first ranked in tennis world and Sharapova is the second, but now you are in the first rank in the Turkish people. Thank you. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Thank you. Q. There was some talk and speculation about a new coach. Can you give us any update with that? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: For now I think I'll try maybe something in the offseason, but I don't know how everything will work out. So for now, yeah, I cannot really say too much. But, I mean, like always my dad will still be there and he'll be my main coach. Yeah, we'll just have to see what's gonna happen in the offseason. Still a little bit under talk. Q. So you're going to be working with somebody, the mystery coach in the offseason, to see how that goes? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, I'll be working -- I'll try something new, but I will work with my dad. My dad is still the main coach. So I'll just get some input from the outside. Q. Do you have any names at this point? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yeah, but since I don't know exactly everything myself, I don't want to throw any names out there for now. Q. Tennis in Turkey, obviously it's not a hugely rich tradition, but countries nearby, Bulgaria, Serbia, do have a rich tennis tradition. Any explanations for why a country of this size hasn't produced more good tennis players? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It's difficult to say. Tennis is an individual sport, and tennis players can come from anywhere. I mean, you even see in Belgium, a small country but have had some great players. You know, Germany have had some great players in the past. Now they are starting to come up again, and there are some great young players. But, I mean, it's not like you can say from one country you're 100% sure to become a good tennis player. It's individual and it's about hard work. Q. You lost to Kim in the finals of this event last year. What does it lack without her and Venus, Serena, some of the big names? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, I think there is a lot of very good and young players coming here, and I think all of us deserve to be here. We have been playing the most consistent and won the most this year, and I think that we deserve to be here. Q. If you can choose the biggest surprise in your eyes of this year, I mean, the biggest result, biggest win in your eyes, which one do you think it was? Roland Garros, Wimbledon, or whatever? Or a match? Which surprise really yourself? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: With me? Q. Results which surprise yourself. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I don't know. It's... Q. Not Li Na, not Stosur? Nobody? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I mean, I think all the players that have won, I think Kvitova, she's a strong player and she's playing very well on grass. I got the experience last year at Wimbledon, so I knew she'd have a very good chance. I think -- I don't know. There's not really any great surprises, because I know that all of those players who have won tournaments or big matches this year, they're all good players. So it's not like it comes out of the blue. Q. Having been world No. 1 for quite a long time now, can you say how different your attitude or feeling is, both to yourself and your sport when you're world No. 1 compared with when you were at a lower ranking? And can you also say how much better a player you think you are than 12 months ago? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I think it's a great feeling to wake up in the morning and know that you're No. 1 in the world and there's no one above you on this planet. So that's pretty cool. But at the same time, you know, that you're always a target. All the other players want to find a way to beat you. And they have nothing to lose, so they go out there and play the best tennis that they can. So of course that's a bit different. You're the targeted one. And when, you know, coming in and being the lower-ranked, you always had someone in front of you. So they were the ones who got targeted. So it's a little bit different, but hopefully I can be the target for a long time. That would be nice. Q. It's been a long year. You've played a lot of tournaments. How are you feeling overall, and how are you feeling about your form coming into this week? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I'm feeling good. You know, it's the last tournament of the year, so it's exciting to be here. It's nice to know that you can give 100% here and I can take a vacation and relax a little bit. I think my form is good. I have been practicing well. We just have to see. It's a strong field, so it's never easy. Q. How much time will you take off after this? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Probably about three weeks, two-and-a-half, three. Q. Any interest in plans for that time? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: A few. Q. Any you'd like to share? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Not really. Q. Top eight players are here. Obviously you seem to have a good relationship with most players. When you get to the top eight players, does that all go out the window and there's a lot of rivalries in the locker room and stuff? Do you kick each other's bags around and stuff? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: No. I mean, we're friends or I have a lot of friends on the tour, and the girls that are here, I have a good relationship with most of them. So, I mean, we still can go out for dinner or to have a coffee or something. But when you're on the court, of course you want to win, and then there, there's no mercy I mean from both sides. You just give it your all. So on the court you fight, but off the court you're friends and everything is normal. Q. What's your expectations about your first Hopman Cup appearance? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It's going to be very exciting. I've heard a lot of good things about Hopman Cup. So when I got the opportunity next year to play, I wanted to play. I heard they're a good organization, and all the players that have been there have all said positive things about it. I heard the crowd is amazing, and you really get prepared well for the Australian Open. So it will be very exciting. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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