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ROGERS CUP WOMENAugust 6, 2013Alisa KleybanovaTORONTO, ONTARIO E. BOUCHARD/A. Kleybanova THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. So your first WTA match since March of last year. Just talk about going out there and the experience and all of that. ALISA KLEYBANOVA: I mean, I was pretty excited to go out there. I love playing on Stadium Court and being in front of the crowd. It's great experience for me every time I go on the court. You know, today I went out, tried to do my best and obviously did, you know. But she played really well. So it wasn't much I could do at the moment, but, you know, it's always an experience for me. I'm not expecting it to be easy from such a big break to come back and play unbelievable tennis. So I just take it one step at a time and get ready for my next tournaments right now. Just get the lesson out of this match but not to think about it too much and just look forward. Q. You know what your level was before everything happened, and you have been playing since May, right? Since the ITFs and World TeamTennis, at what percentage of your former level do you feel you're at now? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: It's hard to say, because you're not playing every day the same. It's always up and down, so there are some definitely better matches that I have played so far than today. Some matches that I wasn't playing so good, so it's hard for me to judge which percentage I am right now. I just know that I, you know, now is the right time for me to start playing tournaments, and no matter if I win or I lose, I just need to keep playing and keep competing and get my confidence back. You know, I need to get matches in to improve right now. It's not about like waiting and training and see what's happening. I just have to go to the tournaments and, you know, try to do my best and try to play every match as best as I can. Then see what's happening in a couple of months. Q. Ball striking you look pretty good. Physically are you 100%, strength‑wise? ALISA KLEYBANOVA:  Well, yeah. I mean, I have been training a lot. I feel pretty good. You know, I have haven't been getting tired recently at all. I have been playing and training every day. I'm back to normal, back to regular basics. So, you know, that's why I think now it's all about playing matches. It's all about feeling, you know, all the competing thing and, you know, all the points and, you know, playing the tournament, the atmosphere, you know, handling the stress out there, getting used to it more because I have been out for a while. Now it's everything a little bit new for me again. It takes time to get used to it. I think that's what I need to do right now. Q. You played a match in Miami last year and then you took the year off. Can you just talk about that time off and how you processed it, how you spent it, how you knew it was time to come back? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, I was hoping that I wouldn't take that year off, you know, because when I started to play Miami, you know, I was trying to come back and, you know, hoping to play more tournaments after that. But, you know, I couldn't deal with the, you know, with all the stress in my body and obviously felt I wasn't ready yet. I took some time off. I was trying to get back on tour through the year, but I always felt like I'm not there yet. So I, you know, the middle of summer I decided just to take it easy and, you know, wait till the next year, because it's very hard to, you know, every like couple weeks set a goal and you feel like I'm not ready and move it again and then you're not ready. So it's just too much stress, trying to get ready for a certain event and then not participate. So I just said, you know, I need some time, and then next year, you know, when I will feel better I will just go for it. That's what I did this year. Basically it was, you know, pretty stressful mentally not to play for such a long time and like train and try to take time off because seeing I'm not ready. So it took me a lot of patience. You know, I had to like really, you know, try to take it easy, not rush things. It was very, very difficult mentally, even more mental than physic. Q. You and your opponent were breaking each other a lot in the first set. I was wondering what you saw out of her today, first time playing against her, I guess? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, she's very good player. I mean, I can't say anything. She did really good job today. She was doing whatever she needed to win the match, and, you know, I just can't say that I was definitely not at my best today. I tried, you know, everything I could do, but it wasn't just working so well for me. Obviously at this level if you're not ‑‑ you know, if you don't have your strong points, if your weapons are not working, it's very hard to win the match because the opponent takes advantage of it straightaway. So I would say that, you know, without really making my serve work so much today and, you know, she was serving pretty good, it was really hard to hold serving games. And then, you know, returning games, sometimes I could do something and sometimes it was just taking it over. So, you know, she played well and I wasn't at 100% today. Q. Can you talk about incorporating nutrition in your plan, in your training plan right now? Did you make any changes? How important is nutrition for you right now? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, nutrition is important for any athlete, I think. You know, it's not like I'm, you know, very special right now at the moment. It's always important when you do something like that at such a high level and when you want to get the best results out of yourself. So, you know, of course I think any athlete is, you know, following certain diet and trying to do the best for his body to recover and to get ready for the competition and to be able to, you know, to resist heavy trainings. Q. An educated guess that your goals have probably changed over the last couple years. Kind of talk about what they are now moving forward for the rest of the year and maybe next year. ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, this year, you know, I'm not really setting any goals right now, because, you know, I'm just starting to play big tournaments. It's very hard for me to predict how it's going to be, because I might play next week and do great, you know, win couple of matches, or it might be a first round again, so it's very hard to set ranking goals or something. I just hope that I can go through this year playing as much as I can and still stay healthy without getting injuries, because this is the most important thing. I'm pretty sure no matter if I win or lose right now, if I can stay healthy and stay well physically and, you know, be able to play at my 100% every week, then the results will come. Maybe not right now, maybe later, but they will be there. The most important thing now is not to get injuries and try to do everything to recover and to prevent and, you know, stay well physically, because then it's all about time to, you know, to get my ranking back. Q. Did all your injuries heal during your awful time? Even before you had the cancer, you had some injuries. Did everything heal up, or did things start to come back? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, I didn't really have any injuries in my career, so thank God I was doing pretty well physically‑wise, so I would say that I think I'm pretty good with that, and, you know, there were some small things coming but it's normal. It's, you know, normal things I think every athlete has, because even if you try to do everything perfect, it's never perfect because the pressure and the amount of stress and amount of activity that you put on your body, it's way over the limits of the human. So of course you get sometimes some small problems, but I really hope those problems will always be small and will always be couple days to fix them and then, you know, to be at 100% again. So right now I don't have any issues that are not, you know, preventing me from playing tennis, you know, and trying to do my best on the court. That's the most important thing for me right now. Q. And I would think you're maybe mentally stronger now just based on the whole experience you have had over the last couple of years where wins and losses aren't as important as they used to be? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: Well, you know,I think no matter what I have been through, wins and losses are still important, because as an athlete I go on the court and, you know, with all my heart I want to win every match. So of course when you lose it's very tough. So obviously you go out there to win. So, you know, it's always going to be tough. It's never going to be like I go on the court, Okay, I lost, doesn't matter. You always try to think like that, but it's not always like that. But I know that right now I need to be even stronger than before, because to come back and, you know, it's going to take a while, it's going to take maybe some not great matches as was today, but I need to go through this, I need to get this experience, and sometimes it's not going to be very positive experience.  I just have to get ready for that, because I know that my way won't be easy and I need to go for it and believe that I can do it. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the social aspect of the impact, seeing other players, the reception you received? Do you feel strange to be back? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: It's a little bit strange, yeah, because, you know, obviously, you know, I'm not so used to see, you know, those people anymore. And, you know, I was always off, I was always more relaxing and all the atmosphere of tension at the tournament, you know, when you're there all the time, you get used to it. It seems normal. But being out and then coming back in, you feel like, oh, my God, everyone is so stressed, so, like, rushing everywhere, trying to do a million things at the same time. So that's going to take ‑‑but it's not going to take long I think to get used to just a couple of tournaments and I'll be completely into the thing. I don't really think about it that much. You know, I try to spend as less as possible, trying to relax more and recover better, just to go on the court, do my thing, go off the court and keep focusing on myself. I think if I can do that, it's the best, you know, to keep myself focused and to save as much energy as possible for the matches. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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