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MERCURY INSURANCE OPENJuly 20, 2012Jelena JankovicCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA Y. CHAN/J. Jankovic THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Rough one, huh? JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I had a set and 3‑1 and the girl was calling for the trainer. She took a timeout. After that I had like three bad games. I lost my focus, and that kind of brought her back into the match. I fought back. I was in there. I was fighting and had match points in that tiebreaker, and didn't go my way. When I lost the second set, it was so tough mentally, and of course physically, because we were playing in the heat and it's not‑‑ the conditions are not easy. In the third set I was fighting again. I was down 5‑2. I had so many chances, break points, to go up 6‑5. The forehand was letting me down. I shanked so many balls when I shouldn't have. I was trying, you know; didn't happen. I had match points. I had lots of opportunities, but I didn't take them. So that's what matters. Q. Looked like on the last point you were just dead tired, the backhand crosscourt. JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I broke the string. Q. Did you really? JELENA JANKOVIC: I broke the string in the match point. It was so... Q. Just before you hit the backhand? JELENA JANKOVIC: No, it was like first or second shot after the serve. So I was playing like three or four shots, like I was slicing, and then I was like, I got to hit it, the girl it at the net. Then of course with the two strings broken the ball went like in the fence. I couldn't control it. So that's unfortunate. Q. Sort of the story of the day, huh? JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, but it's like you fight so hard, and it's like in the crucial time‑‑ I'm not saying that I would have won match if that didn't happen, but at least I didn't want to lose in that way where I was like forced to. I couldn't hit the ball because my racquet was broken. If I could in the middle of the point just grab a new one, but unfortunately that's not allowed. Things happen like this. You have no control. Q. Do you think it's underplayed at all, the role of luck in matches and tennis in general? JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, of course you need luck. Certain points‑‑ for example, let's say I have a match point in the second set and I hit a good serve and the girl like just shanks some ball and it goes like a perfect angle over there but she didn't mean to do it. So it's not really skill, it's also luck. But in sports you need luck, you need skill, you need a lot of things. But that's it. It's like this in the match point. What more could she ask for that I break the string? I have 1% of winning the point, she has 99%. All she needs to do is put the ball. Sooner or later I'm going to make a mistake because I have no control when that's broken like that. That's it. Q. You said yesterday you felt a little slow on the court; how did you feel today? JELENA JANKOVIC: I felt faster. Obviously when I played during the day it was warm and I was moving. I was getting a lot of balls back. But with my strokes, you know, certain things‑‑ I lost some confidence in certain strokes. They are just giving up on me like in the wrong times. In the crucial times I cannot pull the trigger. Sometimes on the other side in some other shots I got to go for too much because I'm limited with the other ones. Obviously I have to improve, I have to work hard, I have to get back, get that confidence back, and we'll see how it goes. Q. Are you off to London straightaway from here or are you stopping back in home in Serbia? JELENA JANKOVIC: I'm going back home to take some stuff, leave some stuff, and take the Olympic gear. Q. Have you seen it yet? JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I received the dresses, the Fila dresses which are red with the‑ how you say ‑ the flag from our country the sign. Q. (Indiscernible.) JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah. And the dress is in the colors of the flag, which is red, blue, and white. As well we received at home my mom told me for the opening ceremony the outfits. Q. Are you staying in the Village or are you staying by Wimbledon? JELENA JANKOVIC: In the village. Q. You like all the crazy night life? JELENA JANKOVIC: No, actually, in the Wimbledon Village. Q. Not the Olympic Village? JELENA JANKOVIC: No. We're going to stay in the same house which we did in Wimbledon which is more convenient. I might go here and there when it's going to be the opening ceremony. I would like to attend that, because last time I was playing I had a problem with my knees so I couldn't go. As well it's tiring. It's like six hours and walking and it's crowded. It's an amazing thing to see and to experience so I would like to the rest of the time if I get a chance to go to the Village and see some other top athletes. It's unique. Q. So the U.S. tennis team is renting a house together. Is the Serbian tennis team doing that, or are you all staying in separate places? JELENA JANKOVIC: I have my own house with some people, our doctor and I don't know who else is in there. I don't know who else is like staying with some other‑‑ I think the Federation chose that, the captain of our Fed Cup team. Q. But no other players with you? JELENA JANKOVIC: No, but there is not many anyway. I think the guys are in one place. Q. That's right. JELENA JANKOVIC: And of course those houses, they only have four rooms. Q. Right. So there is no room for Ana? Can't put her in the basement? JELENA JANKOVIC: No, but she has her team, so we cannot fit. Anyway she has her coach and I don't know, hitting partner, so they need three rooms themselves. There is four rooms in our house total, so that's for me and my team. Then she has four. If the house had 10, 11 rooms, if we had a mansion... Q. Like your house here. JELENA JANKOVIC: If we had something like that we could all fit. That doesn't exist over there. That's the reason why. Q. You were on the court for about six hours with these two matches last night and today. JELENA JANKOVIC: I know. Q. Does that happen very often? JELENA JANKOVIC: No, it doesn't happen. The last time did I that, who knows when was the last time when I actually was that long. Because I was‑‑ either I would make so many mistakes right away and I wouldn't put the ball in the court so I would be done in like an hour or so so I would cut time. I wouldn't spend much time in the court. The court here is pretty slow, so you got to fight, you got to grind. The points are a little bit longer. But that doesn't have to do anything when you have so many chances like you take the lead, and it's like I complicated thewhole ‑‑ my life on the court. I had the match in control. I mean, first set I wasn't in control. I was down 5‑3; I won it 7‑6. I came back and then I was on the top. I was 3‑1 up, 30‑15, and I just did such a bad shot I remember. It was a forehand, and I just put it in the net. I don't even know how I managed to do that. Then at 3‑2 she called the trainer, and after that I was completely out for a couple of games. I let her come back, and that was the time where I messed up. That was something that when you have the player, you know, down, you got to, you know, finish. You got to play even better or keep your focus to win a couple more games and finish the match. I was just there like loose and waiting for I don't know what, walking like I was already done which I wasn't. Then I had to spend another two hours on court because of what I did. That's it, you know. It's not like I'm venting, I don't know it's something that's just the reality. That's what happens. Q. She hasn't had much success is singles but has been playing well the last couple weeks? Talk a little bit about her strengths. JELENA JANKOVIC: Her strengths, I mean, she has a good backhand. She has good volleys. The rest is‑‑ her serve was attackable, but my return was not the way I would like it, especially of the forehand side. I was shanking so many of them and putting them everywhere except where I wanted them. She's a solid player. She has good volleys. She has good feel. She's solid pretty much from every shot. You know, she doesn't have maybe from my opinion something that she does extraordinary, but she's solid. Nowadays, if you can have like a lot of good shots in your game, I think it's good. It's fine. So you can play. You can perform. Not just have like one and the rest is... Q. You had your coach out a couple times during the match and once while she was having the medical timeout. What kind of things did you guys talk about? JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I mean, like I was serving well until then, and I just had to keep that up. Then I was just being lazy. That's the time when I let her come back into the match. I was thinking, She's tired. She cannot walk any more. She's dead because of the sun. We'd been playing a lot. We spent a lot of time on the court. Then I slowed down my arm. I didn't accelerate. I wasn't bending. I was making errors right off the first or second shot. I didn't make her work for anything.  So I kind of, Here you go, a couple games. Like, Let's play again, because I don't need this lead. I prefer the complicated moments. That's the way it went, you know. Now I can be a little sarcastic, but really I'm frustrated. I'm disappointed. When you have something in your control and it's all up to you and then you just do to the wrong way, I mean‑‑ and all the credit of course to her. She was fighting. She was still playing solid. She was hanging in there. So at the end she deserved to win. She was, you know, the better one. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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