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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY SUNCORPJanuary 2, 2014Victoria AzarenkaBRISBANE, QUEENSLAND V. AZARENKA/S. Voegele THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Just talk us through what happened at the end of that second set there. Do you know? Are you able to pick out what was going on? Was it just one of those moments? VICTORIA AZARENKA: There are two things: First, I think my opponent really played well on the match points. Should I have done better? Yeah, I think so. I probably should have closed it out early. I think I made things a little bit tougher for myself. I was creating a lot of opportunity, doing good things, and just didn't convert in the right time. So that definitely needs to be ‑‑ I just have to keep doing the same thing that I've been doing before creating those opportunities. Q. Is it good to have I guess a moment like that leading up to a slam just perhaps to bring that focus to your mind? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, the focus is there. The good thing about it is to go through the tough thing and come out with a win. Because as I said earlier, it's very easy on the mind and on the body when you're playing well, when you're hitting the ball great, to win that. But when you have your struggles, when you don't hit the right way sometimes but still manage to stay composed like in the third set, I think that's a good thing. Q. What did you tell yourself when you were feeling frustrated when that match points weren't going your way? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think I focused a little bit too much on those points, and I should have just let it go a little bit and relaxed. That's what I did kind of in the third set. I just relaxed and I started to play my game and really going for better shots. At that point, I was just focused on, okay, another match point. It was a good learning experience. Q. Did you debrief with your team out there, Sam? Was anything raised? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, you know, I can be negative. I can be whatever after not converting those things. In the end of the day, I have another chance to play better tomorrow. That's the most important thing, to just focus on that. Q. Have you had a similar experience as a junior or in the pros where you've had that many match points, lost them, and come back and won the third set? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I don't remember much. I'm sure it happened sometimes when you had match points you didn't convert them. What happened before earlier in my career I didn't convert them and I lost the match. So today I won the match, so I take it as a positive. Q. That hold in the first game of the third set pretty important, no? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, I think the important was just to kind of regroup really quick after that set and try to stay in the moment and play and grind every point after every point, because she got the momentum. She was serving unbelievable today, I think. Felt like in the important moments she was rising her level. Q. Looking forward to the semifinal clash with Jelena tomorrow? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Definitely. I mean, it's going to be a tough match. She's a great player. We always have tough battles, so definitely looking forward to that. Q. Couple things. You said about the changes in your team in the last two pressers. You made changes; Novak made changes; Federer. You had a pretty successful year, so why make any changes going into the new year? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Well, I wanted to really take care more of my body, and I met the people‑‑ one of the person that I met was during my injury after Wimbledon, and I wanted to work with this group of people. So it just happened that in the end of the year, you know, we could manage to work together. They helped me a lot during that time, and I really wanted to work with them further. After, I just wanted to have more women on my team because I'm always surrounded by men and have so many men in my life. Okay, stop. (Laughter.) By so many men, I work with a lot of men since I was‑‑ okay. I got myself in trouble there. But I just wanted to have that energy, woman energy on my team. I think it works really well. Q. You think they can relate to you better as woman being women themselves? Is that part of it? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah, and I think there is and also a lot of similarities with the characters understanding sometimes. I just wanted to try something new. I feel much better about it. Q. You wish there were more women around the WTA Tour in terms of coaches? Very, very few women coaches on tour. Would you like to see that change in later generations? VICTORIA AZARENKA: I hope so. I hope so. I just think that the main maybe issue with that is a lot of the women, they don't want to travel that much because they get to have family, and so it's much easier foremen to do that. But I wish we'll see a lot more women. Q. Comment on Jelena. You played her a couple times last year: Cincinnati, the Championships. She's experienced and tough. You have a good head‑to‑head record, quick turnaround. Could be a long one, no? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Definitely it's going to be a tough match. Semifinals of such a tournament is never easy. In the beginning of the year, you know, everybody wants to do really well, and Jelena has been improving so much throughout the last year. So definitely going to have another tough battle. Q. The match against Jelena and then if you make it to the final... VICTORIA AZARENKA: We'll talk about it after. Q. I'm just sort of saying in terms Open preparation, you couldn't ask for better sort of match practice, could you? VICTORIA AZARENKA: Oh, yeah. As I said, the field is so strong. To have such competitive players and top players to play against in the preparation to the Open is great. You just really test yourself and see what things you can improve in that next week before the Open. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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