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AEGON INTERNATIONALJune 18, 2013Elena BaltachaEASTBOURNE, ENGLAND E. BALTACHA/K. Pliskova THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How did it feel? ELENA BALTACHA: Brilliant. Yeah, really good. I knew it was going to be a hard match, because, you know, she's up and coming. She's got a massive serve. You know, when you play someone like that on grass, it's, you know, it's going to be difficult. My whole kind of objective before the match was to try and hold serve and then try and somehow get stuck into one of her, you know, her service games. So, yeah. But, no, it was brilliant. Started very well, was very calm. I had a great game plan going into it, attacked her backhand. And then as soon as I found myself in control of the rally, go for the forehand and really try and get her to move. I did that really well today, and I served big as well. Q. Obviously you won at Nottingham but does this feel different because it's a different tournament? I mean... ELENA BALTACHA: No, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, I think Nottingham did help confidence‑wise and gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I can push my body day in, day out, so I managed to string the good performance for five days. The girl in the final really pushed me. Really, really pushed me. Very similar to today with how she played, and it kind of fit quite well in how I actually played the final. Yeah, definitely. You know, I think I played five matches to get the same points of what I pretty much earned here in one match. But I think the way that I played last week has definitely helped me coming in this week. Yeah, I mean, I think if last week didn't happen it would have been a bit more difficult, I think. Q. And the feeling of elation, winning, is it different because it's a tour level? ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah. Q. First one you'd won since... ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, since I came back. Yeah, no, definitely. I think when you look at the draw, it was a good draw. I mean, I could have got someone much harder, but you still need to win these matches. I think as well it's my eighth or ninth tournament back, so to do it at this level and to do it in two sets, again, it was ‑‑I'm very happy with that, how I played. Q. Your motivation looked very high. ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I'm definitely much more motivated, definitely. I think having that six months off has made me realize that my heart is bigger than my stomach. I can enjoy more now. Definitely having that rest has made me really hungry. I just purely just love the competitiveness on court, the 1 v. 1. I absolutely love it. Every second of it I just absolutely enjoy it. I feel really free now. I just ‑‑I love being out there. Yeah, no, I love to dig in and fight. Q. Your movement looked good, as well. ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I have been doing a lot of work on my movement with Nino, my coach, and Louis Cayer, doing a lot of like recovering. Just working very hard on that. Been working very hard on my serve. Served very big today. Obviously, you know, also working on other aspects. But the things we have been working very hard on the last few months are really beginning to show now. Q. You haven't lost a set since the first week in Nottingham. Do you feel on a roll? Do you feel like you have momentum behind you? ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like I was saying, I think if last week didn't happen, it would have been more trickier. And I think sometimes when you're on a roll, you have to just keep trying to getting as much out of it as you can. But, yeah, I feel good. Body‑wise, feels brilliant. Doing a lot of injury prevention. I'm really on that. So everything feels really good. Q. Today when you came out to serve for the match and then when you were broken, how did that feel? ELENA BALTACHA: Um, to be honest, I didn't think anything of it, because I knew ‑‑I felt like I was in control of the match. I knew that I could break her. If I didn't break her, I knew that I was serving well. I think she just started playing a little bit differently when I was serving for the match. She started to slice a lot. I felt that I kind of maybe overpressed a little bit and got myself kind of together in terms of like game plan straight after that. So I still felt like I was in control. Q. You said before do you think it's possible to come back to British No. 1? Do you feel that's more likely after... ELENA BALTACHA: Well, I said I want to try and come back to British No. 1. That's my goal. I don't know realistically, but I don't know. I think it's a great challenge, and I think you can't go off like one win. You know, my ranking, I need to get my ranking up first. I think, you know, I think I'll be in with a shot within a year, year and a half. I need to get myself back properly, get my ranking up, get myself entering into the bigger tournaments, and then we'll see what can happen. But, yeah, I'm definitely up for that challenge, anyways. Q. If you hadn't come back, what do you think you'd be doing this week and next week? ELENA BALTACHA: I would be with my EBAT girls, probably taking them to tournaments and being on court with them. I must admit, though, that I really miss that, though. Because I did that for about six months. I got to know every single one of them very well, and a lot of them text me and ring me and just let me know how everything's going. Obviously I speak to the coaches, as well, getting the feedback. I still miss that. And whenever, you know, Nino and I go back, we always‑‑ we go down to the club and see what's going on and how they are progressing. But, yeah, I mean, obviously after I stop, eventually once I stop, that's what I really want to do. Q. How many girls are there? ELENA BALTACHA: We have got boys as well now. We've got about 150. Yeah, it's a big thing now. Very, very exciting. I think one of the girls ‑‑well, actually, a few of the girls are doing very, very well. We have Sophia, she's 12, she's going to be nationals soon. Justice Hole (phonetic) she's nine this year. She's already like beaten boys in her age group under 9s, under 10s. And obviously the other girls are beginning to follow her, as well, which is very exciting. Q. Good sponsorship? ELENA BALTACHA: Yeah, I mean, obviously the LTA support us, Tennis Foundation support us. We've got some local sponsorships, as well. And then parents do a few things, you know, on eBay and stuff like that to try and ‑‑ yeah, so everyone is kind of chipping in, which is good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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