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AEGON INTERNATIONALJune 18, 2012Marion BartoliEASTBOURNE, ENGLAND THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Always nice to come back to a place where you're the champion? MARION BARTOLI: Yeah, well, first of all, it's nice to be back on grass for me this year. I always played some great matches here in Eastbourne since a lot of years now, so hopefully I will be able to do it again this year, but I'm really happy to be back on my best surface, for sure. Q. Would you be hoping for some rain so you can play twice in the day again? MARION BARTOLI: (Laughter.) Well, I would say if I had to do it to win tournament, it's fine. But, you know, here in England it's hard to predict anything with the weather. Hopefully we can keep it up the same, one match a day, but if I have to play two, then I will do it. Q. Why do you think the surface suits your game as well as it obviously does? MARION BARTOLI: Well, I think a grass court needs to have a lot of qualities regarding your timing, and I think that's probably my best quality. You have to play flat obviously and really play inside the baseline or close to the baseline. That's really my game. I play very close from the baseline, and I play very flat.  So that's obviously two qualities you need to have if you want to play well on grass. Having a very short back swing helps me as well to achieve it. But I really feel every year when I'm coming back on grass it's a new start, and especially the first two matches or the first matches is always a bit hard, but if I'm able to do well and to win it, then I'm feeling my game is really improving a lot by matches played, which is not the case on clay for me. I can't play a lot of matches on clay, and my game cannot improve a lot. So I love grass for that reason but I know the first matches is always tough. Q. You have been here so many times before. Is there anyplace you'd like to keep going back to, revisiting? MARION BARTOLI: The practice court. You know, again, it's more because of the surface. I feel extremely comfortable here in Eastbourne. Of course I love the city. It's a very nice and quiet city, but I do believe that the more time I spend on grass, the better I get. So every time arriving here, usually it's from clay, and I really need some hours to get my game ready to get going before Wimbledon. Obviously it's a very short window for matches to get ready for Wimbledon, so I need to be sharp on my practice and to have the best preparation as possible and to give myself the best chances as possible to perform well before Wimbledon. So it's more obviously spending time on the practice courts and play a lot of balls and get ready and then see how it goes in matches.  But as the tournament goes on, I get more time to do something outside, but before tournament, not so much. Q. Do you think it matters, particularly on grass because it is such a time‑specific surface, whether you play a lot of matches before Wimbledon, or can you get away with perhaps just playing one or two and it not matter that much? MARION BARTOLI: I don't think there is a rule. It really depends on the player. I remember when Zvonareva made the final of Wimbledon, she lost first round here. So she had barely one match here before going into the final. I think grass, it's a specific surface and there is not a lot of players who feel comfortable on that surface, so maybe if you do badly in Eastbourne you can still win Wimbledon if you have one or two matches in the first rounds and get some wins and then get confidence. Grass is very, you know, it's a very specific surface. So it's very hard to predict anything. Obviously last year, Petra won Wimbledon and then made the quarterfinals, so of course if you're able to do well here you have a chance to do well in Wimbledon. There is no real rule, but usually if I'm playing well here I can translate that to Wimbledon. Q. The women's game is so wide open now. You must see you have a pretty good chance going all the way. MARION BARTOLI: Well, I'm not thinking that way, but yes, I have more chance to win Wimbledon than to win Roland Garros, that's for sure. (Laughter.) On the other hand you have Serena and Venus were so good on grass, and even though Serena is now top 5 but Venus is outside 50, you can draw her in the first round. That's really hard to play in Wimbledon. So there is those two players who are set apart on grass courts are very, very difficult to beat. That makes it all very hard. Q. Can you go and be really excited because you think you really can have a chance of winning it? MARION BARTOLI: I'm always very excited when I go to Wimbledon. I have so many memories that every time I'm going back there I have a bright smile on my face because I just have those goosebumps coming back to my body, remembering all those great pictures I have in my mind from this year. So from '08 to now I always have great memories going back to Wimbledon. Q. Is there anything you're particularly working on in your game that you really want to improve? MARION BARTOLI: Well, I do believe when I'm playing well I'm really there. I mean, on the hard court I have been able to have some great results week in and week out, not only in one tournament, really back it up every week. So for me it's more consistency, and being able to repeat that kind of level every day. But I think when I'm on and I have my game on I really don't have to improve other things. Q. Can I ask what your feelings were on what happened yesterday at Queen's? Were you shocked to see those things? MARION BARTOLI: Yeah, well, it's always ‑‑you know, as a tennis player you go through a lot of things mentally during the match. Sometimes you have some ups and downs and you're leading and you think the match is yours and then you're losing, and it's hard sometimes to handle all those bad comments that go through your mind and your negative thoughts. But, you know, it's not a way to express them. That's for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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