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TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 25, 2013Victoria AzarenkaISTANBUL, TURKEY N. LI/V. Azarenka THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you just tell us what happened with the injury? You're clearly in a lot of discomfort. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, just, you know, served really hard, and I don't know, just really locked my back. Everything just can't move to one side, and, you know, really just tried to evaluate how, you know, how the blockage, you know, not being adjusted. I don't know what really happened. You know, just bad movement and really just everything moved, big spasm. No flexibility. Q. It was clear you were in a lot of pain out there. Looked like you were crying and you let out some yells. Why play on, maybe risk another injury, when it was pretty clear it would be tough to win the match, anyways? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, there are a few reasons why. Because there is no‑win situation here retiring, and, you know, being all discussed retired, and the other thing is just try to do the best. I don't have a tournament next week. The physio told me, they told me, You're really locked. There is no really structure damage, but you can't fix it that quickly. The most important, I just wanted to try to do my best for the fans who came and, you know, watched our match, for respect for my opponent. It was just about trying to do the most you can out there. Q. So you really thought you'd be criticized if you retired, even though it was very clear you were in pain? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I didn't think about that. I only thought about trying to give my best about, you know, for the people who came to watch the match and for my opponent, as well. Q. But at the beginning you said there would be a discussion about something when you listed the three reasons. VICTORIA AZARENKA: There could be; there could not be. I don't know. It's not like it never happened before. Q. Did the trainer assure you that you would not further injure yourself, or were they not clear enough with what the injury was to give you that assurance? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, what kind of assurance you talking about? Everybody saw that I was in a lot of pain. You know, in the end of the day, it's my decision what I'm going to do. I just felt that I want to try my best and go from there. I didn't feel like it was doing, as I said, structural damage. It's just been really locked. Q. During the last set and a half, there were several times it looked like you might stop. Were there times you thought, okay, I'm going to stop here, or whatever happens I'm going to go to the end? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I wanted to go to the end, whatever happens, and just try what I could. It wasn't much, but, you know, I'm not feeling any regrets on that I didn't do my best, and especially for the people. Q. Just to clarify, it looked like at the end of the point before the serve that you might have felt something. Maybe I'm wrong on that. Was it just after that serve and you landed that you locked up that you felt the pain for the first time? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I didn't feel pain before that. I was just a little uncomfortable. With the serve, that's when I really started to feel the pain. Q. It's been a very successful season in that you won the Australian Open at the start of the year. How do you reflect on the year now that it's come to an end? It must have been frustrating also the number of little injuries that you picked up along the way. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, yeah, now is a good time to sit and evaluate. I think, you know, overall, if you look at the results of the numbers, I had a pretty good year. I'm No. 2 in the world. I had, you know, great results on the big tournaments and I had injuries. So, you know, it's that balance of good and unfortunate. So it just needs to be, you know, looked through more. I think I can learn a lot from these little things to prevent maybe some of the injuries. Some things you cannot, but, you know, for the next year I will be ready, much better, I'm sure about it. Q. I was reading Andre Agassi's book recently. He was talking about how a loss he had in a Grand Slam final to Sampras wound up affecting him for months and months mentally. Sort of hasn't been the best few months for you since the US Open final results‑wise. Do you think that match is still in your head at all? VICTORIA AZARENKA: No, not really. Q. You and Li Na briefly talked after the match, and could you tell us what was the conversation about? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I just wished her good luck for the rest of the tournament, and she asked me if I was okay. That's it. Q. Talking about the injury, Li Na said earlier when she was here in the news conference the next time you're going to play each other, she wishes both of you are healthy. VICTORIA AZARENKA: I wish so too. Q. Yeah. Do you feel sorry that the last two meetings between you two went to a similar situation, like she had injury during the final of the Australian Open and you had injury this time? It's kind of a very unlucky situation. VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, but you can't change it. So you can sit here and talk how unlucky it is, but it's not going to change anything. So why feel bad about it? Because there is nothing you can do. Of course you can be sad, you know, a little bit frustrated, but hopefully next one will be good. Q. You're looking for the next meeting between you two? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Always. Q. If you could just talk about a couple of things that were going through your head after your injury and you're on court and you were emotional, but what were you thinking about? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I was thinking, how can I stay here, you know, and what can I do to just not feel pain for one more second? You know, sometimes when I had to get off the chair, it was really challenging. So I was thinking about position, how can I better get up with less pain. Then you try to see the ball, and you try to still have a little bit of game plan, so it's a big mess of emotions that just your mind goes through. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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