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CHINA OPENOctober 2, 2013Andrea PetkovicBEIJING, CHINA A. PETKOVIC/S. Kuznetsova THE MODERATOR: Questions in in English, please. Q. Congratulations. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Thank you. Q. In the first round you defeated the defending champion, Victoria, and now you just came back to win Svetlana. Could you please talk about these two matches, and what is the key to your victory? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, well, I've been moving really well since I'm here. I already moved really well in Tokyo, but I didn't have the concentration and the focus to be able to play point by point. I think now this is the first tournament that I've been able to really keep up my intensity and keep up my focus. I think I played two good matches. For me just personally it's really important to see that I can still beat the players on the top level, two past Grand Slam champions. It's just a big boost for my confidence, no matter what happens now in the future. So I've been, yeah, really satisfied with my game. (Smiling.) Q. I remember that you used to dance for celebration after the match. You didn't dance after beating Victoria and today. Will we see you dance next match? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I don't think so. I don't do the dance anymore. After my injuries I never ‑‑ I don't know, I never picked it up again. I guesses I'm adult now. No, I don't know. I'm just not doing it anymore. Q. Many Chinese fans like to you dance, you know. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Okay. Well, I have to get really, really far to do another dance. So you have to be cheering for me, I guess. Q. You start your year in Indian Wells with the ranking of 177, and now you're 43. Because of the injury, you must have been through a lot. What kind of things you been through? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, well, it's been really tough, you know, because I was injured for a year and a half almost, three major injuries, two surgeries. It's been really tough for me to come back mainly because I thought that the injury part was the worst part and I'm going to be fine as soon as I step back on the court. What I figured is it's not like this. The hardest part was when I came back on court and I didn't felt the ball anymore, I didn't move as well anymore, I had trouble with my timing and with concentration. I couldn't keep it up very long. So I think that was for me the most frustrating part, trying to get my level back. Because I was used to myself being really consistent and playing my game, and that was just gone after a year and a half off. So that's been really frustrating for me and really, yeah, challenging. I was doubting myself. I didn't really want to continue playing like this. So I'm just very happy that I managed to sort of put two back‑to‑back wins together against top players and just prove to myself that I'm still able to beat the top players. It's been just really important for my confidence, I think. Q. You were runner‑up here in 2011. This year you just defeated two Grand Slam champions. This court is a little bit different for you? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I just really enjoy being here in Beijing. I just really like the courts. I like the atmosphere. I think the center court is one of the most beautiful center courts. I just really enjoy the atmosphere playing there. Also last year I played a good match against Jankovic here. I just wasn't ready yet after my injury to pull it through.  But I felt okay. I just seem to be playing well here in Beijing. It's just a place that I enjoy coming back.  With such great memories, you always like forward to coming back to those places. The people here have been treating me very nicely and welcoming me very warmly, so it's just a pleasure to be back. I have to work on my Chinese, though. Not as good yet. (Laughter.) Q. Just one more question. In the match with Vika you called a medical timeout. How does your back or shoulder feel right now? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Oh, no, that was fine. I have been struggling with headaches in the past two days. I don't know why. Today again I just had really, really bad headache and the light sort of was disturbing me. I don't what's wrong, if I'm getting sick or something, or if it's just that I'm not used to focus anymore. I really don't know. But I've been struggling with the headaches, and I hope it's going to get better soon. But I think after a good night's sleep I'm going to be fine again. Nothing physically‑wise, just a bad headache. Q. We know that you get injured for a long time, so we want to know, have you try some new things that you have never tried during this time? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I've discovered that I really like going to museums, which is kind of weird, because I never used to enjoy doing that. But everywhere I go, I try to go to a museum and just be there. Practice‑wise, I practice a little less than I used to practice, because I was the type of player that needed to hit a lot of balls and be on the court for five, six hours. Now I just reduced it to three to four. And I don't do weight lifting anymore. I just do with the rubber bands and with medicine balls and trying to just keep some weight off my knee. My knee is probably the worst part of my body. But it's in good shape now, so hopefully I can keep it up. Yeah, we will see. THE MODERATOR: Chinese questions. Q. In French Open qualifications you lose to Chinese player. You said that you even decide to retire. What motivates you to have idea to retire at that moment? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, that day was really crazy day in Paris. It was very, very windy and it was raining and we stopped playing for about ten to fifteen times. The girl was playing really, really well. She played an incredible match. I don't know what she's doing now. I haven't seen her since. But she played a really great match. It wasn't that I lost the match, it was just the fact that I lost my cool during the match. I was just getting really emotional and really frustrated. After the match, I suffered for almost two days because of the loss, and so I just felt like‑‑ not because of tennis, but because I didn't want to do this to myself, just being upset because of a tennis match for two days, just being depressed and so sad and disappointed. I felt like I was putting too much on myself and just trying to deal with too much. I just told my coach, I don't want to continue playing like this if I don't enjoy it anymore, because tennis is the one the great loves in my life. It's something that I really enjoy to do, and I'm so blessed to be able to do what I love as my job. I just didn't have that feeling in that moment anymore. I was just struggling. But, yeah, thankfully I got over it and I won a tournament one week later. Since then I've been playing much better. Q. You have a lot of Chinese fans. Every year they present you with a lot of gifts. Which gift really impressed you the most? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I got a really nice gift, because I really like it when the people put a lot of thought in their gifts. It doesn't have to be very expensive. For example, I got really nice book markers because I read a lot. I got the book markers with the faces of the Chinese opera people. There are five of them. I can use them perfectly well, because I always read two or three books at a time. I have them all in my books. It's just a gift that shows me that the people are interested in what I do. They know that I like to read a lot and I reads a lot of books. So they really made a really nice gift that I can use. I'm always reminded of Beijing when I look at my books, so that's really nice. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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