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NEW HAVEN OPEN AT YALEAugust 24, 2013Sania MirzaJie ZhengNEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT MIRZA‑ZHENG/Medina Garrigues‑Srebotnik THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Talk about the match. What was working today? SANIA MIRZA: You know, we didn't start the tournament too well. I think that you got to win, so to say, a couple ugly matches. We were struggling a little bit with confidence the last couple of weeks. We started off not so well, then we kept going and getting better with every match. It was great that we played our best match in the final. Q. You said you were struggling with confidence the last couple weeks. SANIA MIRZA: Yeah, we lost a couple of close matches which we shouldn't have lost, being up sets and breaks in both matches. It's tough with this format. It's relentless. There's really no margin of error with the deuce points, the super tiebreak. It's just a tossup sometimes. Even today's match was 3‑4, but it was much tighter with that with deuce points. The last one was three games on deuce. With this format, it's tough to keep momentum all the time. You have to be able to focus all the time, get a couple lucky points. That's what happened in the first. We won 10‑8, 10‑8 in the first two matches, played a better match in the semis and played obviously very well today. Q. Do you think the format changes have helped promote the doubles to fans? JIE ZHENG: I was thinking before we thinking we can play better, but we start no so well. That's why we have little bit tight this week. But this week I don't play the singles, so we have the many time for practice doubles together. I think this is the key. This is working. This is why we can play better and better this week. Q. But in general... SANIA MIRZA: I think it does help if you play singles and doubles. I stopped playing singles middle of last year. When I was playing singles and doubles, it's really good. You can save a lot more energy. If you're not, you're playing 10 matches a week, spending six hours on the court sometimes. It's very tough to recover, you know, things like that. So obviously for people like her, it's helped. I think that it's good. Having said that, like I said earlier, there's no margin of error. You know, just a couple points. I think that's why you see a lot more upsets happening in these tournaments rather than the Grand Slams because, you know, the luck factor takes a bigger toll than it does in slams. Q. They changed the rules the last couple years. There's deuce points, no ads back and forth, the 10‑point tiebreaker. Has that sped up the game, made the doubles game more exciting? Do you like the rules changes? SANIA MIRZA: I just answered that really, you know. Do I like it as just a doubles player? I don't know. I guess I can do without a little bit of luck. I'd like to leave some to luck. But when I was playing singles, I liked it because I spent less time on the court. So I think really it's a perspective. But, you know, at the end of the day though, if you go into a 10‑point match tiebreak, it's a tossup. You play four bad points, you could suddenly be 4‑Love down. There's good and bad to both, I guess. Q. I think this is your first title together. How does it feel to have that after maybe having ups and downs this summer? JIE ZHENG: I think it's a good start, give us the big confidence to US Open, yeah. We are looking forward, hope we can keep play together as long as possible. SANIA MIRZA: We had decided to play the US Open. Actually, I was playing with Bethanie this year. She was playing with Nuria. Nuria got hurt. Bethanie got hurt. I was looking. It's great. We played together in Brussels earlier this year. We made the semis. We lost a tight super tiebreak there. We knew we could play well together. It's just last couple weeks didn't go as well as we wanted them to. It happens when you play 30 weeks a year. There are going to be a few weeks where you don't play your best. Like she said, we're good. We're happy to take this confidence into US Open and hopefully try and do as well as we can. Q. Can you talk about your on‑court personalities? Who makes the decision on the ad point? SANIA MIRZA: Yeah, I mean, I per se don't believe in someone being the boss out there, so to say. We kind of discuss. I tell her things, she tells me things, what we feel. Sometimes on the outside you see it better than when you play. If someone is serving slow, just remind them, Oh, move your feet faster. She tells me, and I do, too. On the deuce point, whoever is going to take it, it's how we're feeling that game. Returns are our strength, both of us. More often than not we're feeling them. But there are some games that I don't feel them, there's some games that she doesn't, and you just talk to each other. Q. You mentioned you were playing with other doubles partners before Brussels. When you paired together for the first time, did you notice an immediate chemistry? SANIA MIRZA: I've known her for a very long time. We've played some great matches in singles against each other, as well, in Asian Games. So we see each other a lot, even when we're not on the tour (laughter). You know, she's really easy to get along with. She's extremely soft. She's very, very easy. The team's great around us. Her husband is also her coach, who is helping us out, her trainer, my mom. Brussels was just a one‑off thing. We weren't supposed to play. It was actually after Wimbledon we decided to play US Open together. We didn't know in Brussels whether we were going to play this summer together. It was just that one week. Q. Sania, can you talk about how life on tour is different now that you're retired from singles. SANIA MIRZA: Well, I mean, you have a little bit more time, especially 'cause it's a shorter format as well. You have a lot more time to practice. When you play singles and doubles, even if you make quarters or semis in singles, make semis in doubles, you're playing seven matches. Seven matches in seven days is a lot on your body and mind. You don't have that much time to work on your practice and fitness. I miss singles a lot because I was forced to stop playing singles because of my body. That's something, one of the hardest decisions I had to make. But I enjoy this as well. I think 10 years on tour, I do need some time to myself, I guess (laughter). Q. The growth of Asian tennis, the WTA premiere event going to Wuhan, how important has that been for you? Have you seen crowds grow? JIE ZHENG: Yeah, I heard next year China have the more tournaments. So for me it's good news. I can play in my home. I think it's good news for China tennis because right now we have the Li Na. She is very good. Now is more persons going to the tennis court to practice tennis. Yeah, is big change. I remember 10 years ago, not too many Chinese persons know what is tennis sport, only know the table tennis or badminton, yeah. But these 10 years, big change. I was very happy to see. Even I retire, I also want support for tennis in China. Yeah, it's good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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