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APIA INTERNATIONAL SYDNEYJanuary 9, 2012Andrea PetkovicSYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES A. PETKOVIC/A. Pavlyuchenkova THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Great start to your tournament here. What pleased you most about that performance? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Um, yeah, I was really satisfied with the way I played. Last week, I was really struggling with‑‑ normally my strength is I can play each point with high intensity. It's really tough against me because I'm good shape and I play every point 100%. Last week I was struggling with that. I was having ups and downs because maybe also I didn't play for a long time, two and a half months. I was out since Beijing, so I was struggling with finding my way into matches again. I was really pleased with my performance today because I really played each point with a high intensity. Q. You were out after Beijing because of your knee. Is that all okay now? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, it's fine. I went to rehab for two or three weeks and got it fixed again. Now I'm really not having any trouble anymore. So hopefully it stays like this, because it's always going to be my weak spot. So I have to do exercises every day to keep it strong. Hopefully it stays healthy. (Knocking on head.) Q. What happened to the Petko Dance? I didn't see it. ANDREA PETKOVIC: (Laughter.) Well, I always try to do something new. Right now I have the Petko Dunk. Q. (Question regarding basketball.) ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, well, it's a shout out to a fellow German athlete. Q. What's his name? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Do you want to guess? Q. Your dad told me. I saw it, but I can't remember it. ANDREA PETKOVIC: It's Bastian Schweinsteiger. He's a soccer player on our national team. We met at the awards ceremony of Athlete of the Year. He told me if I do his‑‑ that's what he does if he shot a goal. So he told me if I do that, he's going to do the Petko Dance next time he shoots a goal. So I'm really excited if he's going to do it. He's practicing, I heard. So I'm doing the Petko Dunk now. Q. How long have you done that? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Since Brisbane, so it's new. Q. The Petko Dance, were there any superstitions about that? ANDREA PETKOVIC: For example, after Miami, I wanted to stop it at all, so I had two tournaments I didn't do anything and I lost two times first and second round. So then I brought something new back. I did the moon walk. I get annoyed and bord by myself very quickly, so I always have to change it up otherwise I'm going to hang from the ceiling soon. (Laughter.) Q. Your father also said there were a few people finding the dance a bit too full on; is that right? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I don't think the other girls, but I think some of the‑‑ there are always people who don't like you if you're a little extreme. There are always critics. But I don't really care what people say, so... Q. Will the dance come back? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Right now I'm having the Petko Dunk until I see the Petko Dance from Basti. If that doesn't happen, then I have to find something new, I guess. (Laughter.) Q. Were you a little bit surprised by the way the match went? She a really great player. Seemed like you handled things well and were pretty seamless. ANDREA PETKOVIC: I was surprised, I have to say, because we played in Beijing and I won the first set with one break at 6‑3. It was still really hard‑fought. Second set was 7‑6. She plays amazing tennis when she's on fire. She is hits so hard and so heavy. So I was prepared for a really tough match. I was‑‑ as I said, I was really pleased with my performance today. I think was serving quite well. I got broken two times only, and with my return game, that's important when I don't get broken a lot. So I was really pleased. I'm sure Anastasia can play much better, so I was also lucky. Q. I know you've been asked this question before, but how do you explain the success of German women's tennis right now? ANDREA PETKOVIC: It's difficult. It's difficult to find a good reason. But I really think we've been friends for such a long time, already for ten or twelve years, so we really have this positive competition between us. It's not‑‑ there is no jealousy at all. We just try to take the positive things out of it. When I started‑‑ I mean, we practice all the time together. When the girls practice with me, they see they can beat me and they're at same level or even better at some points. So when I started playing well at the beginning of the last year, playing station quarters in Australia and semis in Miami beating Caroline, the girls were like, Okay, if she can do it I can do it. Julia wins in Stuttgart and Sabine starts to play well in Wimbledon on grass. So it was just a roll. Angelique Kerber, I thought she was having a really bad losing streak, so I talked to her in Wimbledon. I told her to come to my academy and practice with me for six weeks. So we practiced together. So we just have to positive companionship, and then she goes and plays semis at the US Open. So I think pushing each other and trying to get the best out of each other is the main reason. Because we feel that it's also better for us because I feel when I have the other girls in my neck that I have to improve. I'm not going to lie down and just enjoy my success. I'm going to work harder and try to, you know, keep the girls behind me. So it's really, really positive competition. I think that's what keeps us going. I'm really glad, because tennis in Germany was not on the radar at all, and now it's starting to come back. Also that rises expectations, of course, but we have four girls, so I think we're going to be fine. Q. Do you think that there is any other group of girls like yours on tour? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I don't know, but I think the Italian and Czech girls, they get along really, really well. They' re all friends. I think that also shows in Fed Cup, because I think even though you play for yourself, the Fed Cup is a different competition. To be a team, it helps that we are almost all in the same age, we are all in the same generation, so we really stuck with each other through thick and thin. We went through highs and lows together. Now we found sort of the core of the team and we know where we belong. We really want to win the Fed Cup, so I think this collective goal that we have, it just keeps us going. It really gives us the team spirit we need. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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