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ROLAND GARROSJune 2, 2014Andrea PetkovicPARIS, FRANCE A. PETKOVIC/K. Bertens THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. What a tough match. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah. Q. What a shout in the end. You were so happy? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, I was really relieved that I picked myself up after I was up 4‑2 in the third and I started playing a little passively. I wasn't going for my shots anymore. I was sort of hoping that she's gonna miss. She's too good for that. After going down 5‑4 in the third, I just sort of told myself, Okay, listen, you have to play aggressive. You have to go for your shots, and nobody's going to give you the quarterfinals just because you're nice (smiling), so go gain it. I started playing more aggressively. It paid off in the end. Q. So much of your tennis in the last two or three years has been trying to get back to where you were. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah. Q. Does this feel like you've achieved that? ANDREA PETKOVIC: No, not yet. I feel like I still have a long way to go, and I'm still not as consistent as I used to be. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn and still a lot of things that need to come back that are gone now. After all my injuries, it's been a very long time that I was out. You sort of forget, especially mentally, you sort of forget a lot of things. Now it's a process. It's a process. I'm still not there where I want to be. It's a long way to go. Nowhere near the end. Q. Still, you must be pretty happy? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I'm happy. I'm very happy. I'm relieved. But also happy. It was super tough, because I didn't know her at all. I just stalked her on YouTube yesterday the whole day, and I was already impressed yesterday. I saw her match against Ana in Australian Open, and I think she played super well. I think she's gonna be a force on the WTA when she gets fitter and recovers from her injuries that she's had. She has amazing strokes, really good serve. I wasn't surprised, but, you know, it's always tough when you are the huge favorite and everybody expects you to win and then you have a super tough opponent. I'm relieved and very happy. It's nice to be back at the quarterfinal stage. Q. Have you ever thought if an opponent wanted to stalk you on YouTube and saw you dancing? ANDREA PETKOVIC: They wouldn't find a lot of tennis, I guess (smiling). They would stalk me and see me being weirdly dressed and do stuff, which is also nice. Q. You mentioned on the court philosophy and literature. Obviously you're in a country famous for philosophers. Two questions: Which philosopher has made the biggest impression on you? And also the second one, which writer? Which author? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I have two favorite authors. One is Goethe, which is our ‑‑well, for me, the greatest genius with words. Unfortunately, if you cannot speak German, it's not so easy to appreciate that. And David Foster Wallace is the other one that I just started reading actually a couple of months ago and I'm totally amazed by him. I think he's one of the greatest. Philosopher‑wise, Friedrich Nietzsche is the one that impressed me most. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says and it's very dark and sad, but he was a good writer, too. I actually really liked the existentialists in French. I read a lot of Sartre and Camus. Yeah. Q. You talked about the dancing. ANDREA PETKOVIC: Did I? When did I talk? Q. So much of it on YouTube. Are you a different player in the way you celebrate your wins these days compared to a few years ago? Used to be quite a carnival at the end of your matches. Are you a little bit more grown up about it now? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think so, maybe. But also I just didn't feel like dancing anymore. It was something that was forced upon me ‑‑nothing is forced upon me. I choose to do things, right? But it's just that I did it. It was a bet in the beginning. I did it because I was happy after the matches. But then it sort of got out of hand, because sometimes I played bad matches. I didn't feel like dancing. But people were coming just to see the dance. They were like, Andrea, dance, dance. Then I sort of did it to don't disappoint the people. It wasn't a thing it used to be. It wasn't a happy, spontaneous thing. It was something I needed to do somehow, and that was not what it was all about. Also, yeah, I was 20 when I did it, or 21. So now I'm old. I'm moving straight towards the 30s. Can't be dancing when you're 30 anymore (smiling). Q. Kiki seemed to have a bit of a mental breakdown after the first set. Seems to happen a lot in female tennis. Can you understand why? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Do you think? It's only in female tennis? Q. Not only, but it seems to happen a bit more... ANDREA PETKOVIC: That was sexist (smiling). I don't know if it was a mental breakdown. It's always two players on court, and maybe I just sort of got into the rhythm and played more aggressively, and then it just changed the match. In the beginning I was kind of passive. I was expecting her to make more mistakes, and she was playing very well. She was pushing me behind the baseline. I just couldn't play my game. Then afterwards, when I sort of settled with my footwork and I started moving better, I was also able to put more pressure on her. That's why she started missing. But, you know, in the third set it was a good matchup. I was lucky that I got out with the win in the end. Q. I read some article which said when you are out of the tour you are thinking about retirement. So I was wondering how close you are quitting or giving up your career? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, actually, exactly one year ago here when I lost in quallies second round I was very close to quitting. It wasn't because I had lost in second round against some player that was ranked 160. It wasn't about that. It was just I didn't like playing anymore. I hated it. I was putting so much pressure on myself to getting back where I was, and it wasn't fun anymore. I was just forcing. Everything was work and hard. You know, it wasn't what it was, why I started playing tennis. I started playing tennis because I love it, and it's a big part of my life. It brought so much to me and my family. I think it brings so many people together, and it's a nice, a beautiful thing, and it's not something that is ugly and hard and difficult. That's what it was for me when I came back from my injuries, because I was struggling with my level of play. I was just not where I was before. I sort of wanted to be where I was before. I was used to myself being a top 10 player. That's what I figured I was. When I came back, I wasn't. I wasn't at all. My footwork was off, my strokes were bad. My serve was bad. I hated it. That's why I wanted to stop. After that, I won a tournament, luckily, so I didn't, and I kept doing what I did. And now I'm here and it's a nice reward now. Q. That was a great answer, by the way. ANDREA PETKOVIC:  Thank you. I read it in your book (laughter). Q. Thank you, very nice. This may seem a dumb question after that answer, but do you actually think you're equipped to win a slam? Here we are in a very, very open Women's Championship this year. Do you think you are able at this stage to contemplate actually winning a slam? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, you know, I think I would like to start talking about that once I reach the semis and finals of it, because quarters is nice, and I have reached four quarters now, but I haven't gone further. I think to really smell the victory of a Grand Slam I need to be getting further before I can talk about winning a Grand Slam. Obviously I'm here to win each match, and I'm not looking ‑‑I'm not saying I'm going to lose before, because I shouldn't be playing if I was thinking that way, but I'm just not occupying my mind with those kind of thoughts. I'm just trying to do what I do and try my best and see where it leads me. Obviously once I reach the semis and finals for a couple of times, then I can start talk about winning Grand Slams. Q. You have played four players now who were ranked I think 70 and worse. Do you think it will be at all easier in the next round? Jankovic, Errani. You get to finally feel a little bit more nothing to lose‑ish? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Less pressure? Q. Exactly. ANDREA PETKOVIC: That's a good question. Maybe. I don't know. But then again, I was never the type of player that didn't put pressure on myself. So I always kind of put pressure on myself and I always expect myself to win. That's why I play tennis. I want to play with the best and I want to beat those players. Maybe. Maybe I'm going to feel less pressure than I did in the past rounds, and maybe I'm going to relax more. But as I said, I still expect myself to win in each match, and that's pressure enough. So maybe it will be just the same as it was before. Q. When you were coming up as a player, how did you handle the financial challenges on the tour? How much does it cost just to travel each year? When do you break even? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, in the beginning, the thing was that I used to travel all alone, which was kind of difficult times for me, but also, it made me who I am now as a tennis player, because I couldn't afford bringing a coach or somebody with me. I have a little sister, so my parents also have to take care of her. I was traveling alone. That was a good lesson of life being in all these little villages playing the 10 and 25,000s and 50,000s. As I said, it just made me who I am. It made me tougher. I think it made me independent. So it is definitely a financial challenge for each and every player. Any player who is in a Federation that is able to help is very lucky. But, yeah, I don't know what I can say to this. Sorry. Q. You're clearly a very thoughtful person, many interests outside of tennis. Going back to what you said about philosophy. Could you, for example, after tennis imagine yourself being a teacher or something like that, teaching philosophy? ANDREA PETKOVIC: No, because I have no patience whatsoever (smiling). I would definitely not be a teacher. Although I would love to be able to do that, but as I said, I have no patience whatsoever. That's not going to be something for me. I really don't know what I'm going to do afterwards. I thought about it a lot, especially when I was injured. I kept coming back to journalism, writing, but not really. So I guess I'm still, my life and destiny still wants me to play tennis, because otherwise I feel like I would know more what I wanted in life afterwards, and right now the only thing that I care about is tennis. So, yeah, I do have a lot of interests besides tennis, but nothing really gets my passion so far. I'm I think at the place where I need to be right now. Q. What's been the most gratifying or satisfying aspect of this journey for you back the last two, three years? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think the moment in Charleston when I won the tournament was very rewarding and just because I actually was a top 10 player before but I never won a premier title. So that was very rewarding. Little things, little wins after, you know, just being persistent and sticking with what I wanted to do, because I doubted myself so many times. I was in so many holes and didn't want to play anymore. So I think just sticking with what I wanted to do despite the fact I didn't feel like doing it anymore. I think now that's the most rewarding thing and makes me very happy that finally I'm gaining the wins again. I'm back at the big stages, I guess. Q. So are you patient with yourself, even if you're not patient with other things in general? ANDREA PETKOVIC: No, no, I haven't been so patient, I think. It's just, as I said, and I'm going to keep repeating it. I never stopped wanting it. I thought about what else I could do, and I actually asked for internships, people that I knew, and I thought what else I could do. But I never really wanted to be anything than a tennis player.  So here I am, and I'm still a tennis player. Q. You're such a good storyteller. From the old days when you were traveling from village to village and by yourself, can you think of any tale or story that would be fun of hotels without electricity or misconnections. ANDREA PETKOVIC: I know once when I played in England, the hotels were so expensive and I had just finished school and I stayed at a hostel and next to me were 25 boys celebrating something. I don't know what. They kept singing English songs for the whole night. And I had to play next day at 10:00 in the morning. Well, I lost (laughter). That's the end of the story. There were others. There are crazy stories. I can't think of them. There are so many. I can't think of any right now. Q. When you were thinking of other things that you might do, what were some of those things? ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I asked for some internships at some newspapers. I was also writing for kind of a big newspaper in Germany for a while, and I asked a few politicians that I know if I could do an internship with them. So there were different things, but I didn't want to do anything, actually, except playing tennis. Q. Obviously you like philosophy and keeping the world in perspective and all that goes into that. Why do you think at the same time it's hard for you to keep winning and losing sometimes in perspective and why it still affects you so deeply so often? ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think my rational and my emotional sort of thing is just so separated. I can't seem to connect it. I don't know. I'm just rational. I know things I'm doing are not good or that I'm getting too affected by some losses. But it doesn't change my emotions. Emotionally I still get really affected by it. That's kind of the balance that I'm struggling with with myself for past years. I'm getting kind of better, but, you know, it's a process and it's a struggle for me to sort of keep the rational and the emotional in balance. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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