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QATAR TOTAL OPENFebruary 19, 2012Samantha StosurDOHA, QATAR V. AZARENKA/S. Stosur THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Obviously a good week for you this week, although you would have preferred today to go better. What did she do? She just seemed every place. SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah. Oh, for sure I'm happy with the week that I have had. It's been great to be able to turn around my form so quickly after a disappointing month first up, so I'm really pleased that I have been able to pick it up and make it to the final. As far as tonight goes, yeah, I think she played very well, very solid, as usual. She, you know, doesn't stand up and hit, you know, 50 winners a match, but she makes you work for every point and moves very well, stays on the baseline, and really takes the time away from you that way. So she was able to do that very well tonight, and obviously it was pretty tough for me to play as aggressively as probably I wanted to, given the conditions. Q. Can you sense the confidence that she's playing with now when you're opposite her? SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, absolutely. I mean, she obviously has her way of being on the court, and I think, you know, won, what is it, 17 matches straight now or something. That's just growing and growing. I think any player who hasn't lost all year is always going to feel confident and probably when they are under pressure not feel it so much and really be able to get through those matches and just believe that they're gonna win. Q. Is it surprising ‑‑she left here last year thinking‑‑ she went home, thought maybe she didn't even want to play anymore, and that a year later it could turn around that fast? SAMANTHA STOSUR: Tennis can change quickly. You know, I think everyone always goes through struggles at some point in time in their career, whatever, if it's a bad injury or confidence or whatever it is. So I think everyone tends to go through those moments, and it's how you bounce back from them. Q. Talk about your turnaround. Obviously the Australian didn't quite go how you would have liked. SAMANTHA STOSUR: Uh‑huh. Q. This must be a real positive. SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, absolutely. Like I said before, I'm really pleased with the way ‑‑I mean, making the final is great, but I'm happy with the way I have been able to play through this week. I feel like I have really, you know, picked up my tennis and playing the way that I know that I can. It's very pleasing that, you know, it's still February and I'm playing this way. Hopefully I can keep it going. Q. There are always players that play better at home with a crowd, and then there are those who that kind of makes them a little bit more nervous and stuff. I mean, I think it's just probably who you are. But do you have any reason why that seems to be your story that, you know, you have expectations or feel more pressure? SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, I mean, I think up until this last year I was, you know, I was seeded quite highly and whatever else, but this year was obviously different. Before that, I wasn't expected to go out and, you know, have really fantastic tournaments according to my ranking. I thought I'd handled it quite well up until this year, really. I was surprised that it kinda crippled me the way that it did, because I thought I had it under control and all that experience from previous years I thought would come into effect, and for whatever reason it didn't. I didn't play well, I didn't handle it, and, you know, now you move on. You get out of the country and you play well again. I think it's just one of those things. It is difficult to play a home Grand Slam. I love it and I wouldn't change it for anything, but of course it just makes you want to do better and better while you're there. Q. Just your record against Azarenka hasn't been good. Is there something about her game? Is it a return game? She seems to kind of do a good job of neutralizing your serve. What is it about her game that makes it so difficult for you? SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, I think she's very good at neutralizing everything. Especially tonight I feel like I didn't getrewarded for hitting big serves, I didn't get rewarded for stepping in and trying to crack the return. She manages to stay on the baseline. Pace doesn't really seem to bother her. You've got to find another way to win. Obviously I haven't had success, and hopefully tonight I have been able to learn a couple of things and I can go into the next one maybe with something else to think about. It's good to get these opportunities to play players like her and the best players in the world, because it shows that sometimes you've got to change your game to adapt to what's going on on the other side. Q. Compared to maybe even last year, has she brought any new weapons to, you know, this week compared to when you've faced her at the end of last year or early last year? SAMANTHA STOSUR: No, I don't think so. I think the biggest difference is probably just her confidence that she's playing with at the moment, and, you know, when you're like that, you seem to do everything a little bit better. You know, what she does do, she does very, very well. That's why she's No. 1 at the moment. Q. Do you feel you've done anything different with your game now than you were doing last month that's working better for you? SAMANTHA STOSUR: I haven't specifically gone out to try and change anything. I think it was just a matter of trying to play loose and, you know, have better footwork to be able to hit the shots that I want to hit. This week I probably tried to serve a bit better, tried to serve a bit harder and really use that where I think for a little while there I was just trying to get it in and get my percentages higher and wasn't getting rewarded. I have a good weapon in my serve, so I've got to use it. That's probably the one thing I tried to improve this week. Q. Is there anything you think you can do to change things when you're at home? Are you like a believer in sports psychology or anything like that? SAMANTHA STOSUR: I use a sports psychologist, and I have been doing that for a couple of years. You know, I'd like to think next year is going to be a lot better. It can't get much worse. I probably don't have to change that much and I'm going to get a better result. I'm always trying to work through things and different scenarios. I'm not really worried about playing in Australia right now. I have 10 more months to play this year, and I will figure that out when I need to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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