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WIMBLEDONJune 24, 2013Andrea PetkovicLONDON, ENGLAND A. PETKOVIC/P. Parmentier THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Grass doesn't suck too badly. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, it awkwardly has to do with the head a lot. Normally when I went into the grass season I was already pissed before I hit one ball. This time I was just in this whole mood of gratefulness for my second‑chance career. I just see it really as a second career. I was just like, Okay, you're just going to go for the grass and love it and try to start a romance with it. It if it didn't want you, you're going to force it to love back. So I'm just enjoying myself really. I'm never going to be‑‑ it's never going to be my favorite surface, but as I said, I'm working at least on a romance. Q. Talk about the clay result, making the final there, how much of that really, even though it was clay, helped you. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Definitely. I think because I‑‑ the thing was before at the French Open I lost second round quallies. I was really doubting myself and I was having second thoughts. I even said to Peter, I don't want to play like this. It was not about not wanting to play tennis, it was good. It was more about not want to play this way, as I was playing very stiff, and, yeah, just having so much expectations and not enjoying myself. So I tried to change my mind and my attitude. It worked out thankfully. Almost immediately in Marseilles I started playing much better. It just kept going like this, and I lost to an amazingly playing Simona, who then I told her, I got you in the rhythm, huh, because she was playing incredible. So there were no hard feelings after losing the finals. It gave me a lot of confidence in what I'm doing and the things I've changed, because I was doubting that also, of course. I was used to practicing a lot and being a machine on court. Now I have to somehow rely on other things that I didn't have before. It was a tough time. And the thing was for me, I thought that with the injuries the tough time was over. I thought, Okay, now everything is great. It's not that way. The thing is the coming back is harder than the injury itself, because when I was injured I was at home with my friends. Wasn't that bad that moment. It was more the coming back that was hard for me. That's why I was really frustrated and stressing out. But now I'm just, as I said, enjoying myself and thankful for the second chance now. Q. Going back to the French Open you said you were playing stiff. Was that mental or physical? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Mental, I think. I was going into the qualifying expecting to win and expecting to at least reach third round. This is not how it works. The good thing is I changed immediately for Marseilles. I just said, I want to know the first opponent and nothing else. Before I was already checking the draw and, Oh, qualifying I can play this. This is not how it works. All of the girls are playing so much better than it used to be ten or five years ago. So it was good that I lost. I deserved to lose. The other girl was playing better than I was that match. So it definitely put my head back where it was supposed to be. Yeah, I realized a lot of things that were going wrong in my head. It's good to have the attitude and to still believe in yourself as a top‑10 player. But you cannot go out there and just underestimate everybody else because you used to be a top‑10 player for two months. (Smiling.) So that really put my head back on my shoulders. It was good, and I deserved to lose that match. Q. Talk your next match against Sloane. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I didn't know I was playing Sloane, but my coach just told me because I keep the match‑by‑match thing. Well, I played her on hard court and she was still very young. She's still young, but she was even younger back then. It was two years ago. I played a really solid match. She was missing a lot, so I cannot take a lot out of there. I remember her balls are very heavy and she hits the ball very clean. The ball has a lot of spin on it and it just moves in your racquet. You were there in Carlsbad. I already told you she's a great talent and going to make big things. She proved that already. It's going to be a really tough one. I will to have sort it out, watch a few YouTube videos. She developed so much as a player. I will just have to try to, yeah, prepare myself and see what's going to happen. I'm definitely very excited to have won the first round. I was never that excited to win a first round, too. So I'm just going to try to do my best and play a good match. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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