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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPENAugust 15, 2013Victoria AzarenkaCINCINNATI, OHIO V. AZARENKA/M. Rybarikova THE MODERATOR: Questions for Victoria. Q. Victoria, that was a solid first match. Dug out of some early trouble and seemed to find your rhythm. How are you feeling after Canada now? You feel back to full strength roughly? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I think it was a pretty good match. Today there was sometimes a little bit of trouble serving, but overall I felt better than I did in my first match. I was much more controlling the game. It was really up to me today, I felt. And I was doing everything I wanted to do. I feel still there can be a lot more improvement with the execution and a little bit more consistency, but it's coming along. What's important is that it was better than the other match. That's how I like to build up. From Canada, I feel good. Physically, I feel good. You know, ready to go. My movement, everything is there. So it's just a matter of keep playing matches, keep getting those, you know, competition in, and that's it. Q. How surprising is it to have this cool weather? I mean, everybody usually comes to Cincinnati thinking they're going to get heat preparation for the Open, and it's been a bit cool the last couple of days. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Today was cooler. My first match was really hot. Yeah, but I take whatever it is. I never had a problem with the heat. It's just the humidity here. You always need to have your towel around, and it makes it a little bit complicated. I got my first warning for time last time, and I never get those. So it was a little bit different for me. But that's pretty much it. Just the humidity. Q. Vika, sorry if someone already asked this, but there were 13 service breaks in your match, including in the last seven games. Could you just talk about that and maybe the frustration of having that happen. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I returned pretty good, and I think she did too. There were a couple of points at the beginning of my service games that were sometimes uncertain; sometimes I made a little bit too easy of a mistake. Like last game, I should have taken special‑‑ that last point was just ridiculous. But overall, you know, I felt like my game on my serves should have been better, but it was up to me really. It was my mistake that I didn't fully commit sometimes, didn't take my chances. But it's a process, I think. You can always get better with something. But my return was on fire, so... Q. Victoria, where were you when you found out about the big announcement from Marion Bartoli? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I actually saw that on Twitter, and I was like, Yeah, that's some crap. But, yeah, I think everybody's a little bit surprised about that. Q. What do you make of her decision to walk away about a month after winning Wimbledon? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think, you know, whatever makes her happy, whatever, you know, she feels accomplished. Everybody have to respect that because it's Marion's life, her career. I think it's very brave to do that. I think she was chasing her dream for such a long time. When she got it, it felt good. So whatever makes her happy. She's a great competitor. Always been great on the tour. I wish her all the best in whatever she's going to do next. But there's no doubt it's been surprising for everybody. Q. What are you going to remember most about her? I mean, you had a bunch of tough matches against her over the course of your career. She's the one who ended your streak last year in Miami. But you also had a lot of wins over her obviously too. What will you remember most about her when you're retired, when you look back at her career? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I think she's a very different player from everybody else. I have to give her a lot of credit for making so much of her career. And it's been a pleasure to play against her. She's a very challenging opponent. We're all going to remember her as a Wimbledon champion, so I think that's good memories to have. Q. Vika, you're at the top of your game and you're very young, but can you think to when you retire? Is it something you're just going to realize one day or you're going to plan? Do you think about it? VICTORIA AZARENKA: No, I'm not going to plan that. I want to accomplish my goals. I don't want to think about my retirement pretty much at all right now. If I retire, it's because I want to do that. It's not because something will stop me or something will not allow me to play more. So that's my only goal. Q. You could play Petra next. You haven't played in quite a long time. You guys had a really good match in Istanbul a few years ago and a bunch of good matches before that. What do you think about possibly playing her for the first time in a long time and challenges that matchup presents you? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I think it's a great opportunity to kind of play against each other to see the difference what we had two years ago. Did she win already? Q. She hasn't played yet. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Okay, so either player I haven't played in a while. So it's going to be interesting to play either one of them just to see where we're at. Just from here it gets tougher. Whoever I play, I'm just going to try to do my best. Q. Vika, seeing you at that SAP presentation the other day, it seemed to me you were really growing into this spokesperson. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Thank you. Q. Is it something you feel like, and is it something you try to do? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think it's just the matter of opportunities. Once you play more on the tour, you get further in your career, that's something that is happening to me. So I just accept it, you know, to like this part. And I think especially be appreciated from people coming into this sport and dedicating their time and money to invest in that, it's just incredible. So for me to be a part of that or kind of to be on the side to be thankful for that and cooperate, it's just a great opportunity. So I just take it as something I always want to do and participate, and I think we can have a great future to moving with our sport further, and it's going to be exciting for everybody. You know, like especially with a deal like SAP. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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