M. Sharapova - Day 10
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Q. Has it occurred to you that the reason why Venus Williams played better
than she played in years today, in fact, probably the best she's played in
her life, is that her sister Serena being out of the tournament made her
conscious of the fact that she had to carry the flag for the Williams family
and put her demons to rest and play her best tennis?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, I don't think it has anything to do with family or
anything like that. It was Venus out there. It wasn't Serena. I just played
against a really good opponent. You know, I thought we played a really good
match. Today it went to the better person.
Q. Did it surprise you how well she played?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No. You can't be surprised in a semifinal of Wimbledon.
Everybody's going to play their best tennis. Everybody's going to go out
there and perform their best. It's absolutely normal.
Q. What did you think about your level of play?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Uhm, I don't think I played my best tennis. But credit to
her for, you know, not making me play my best. She had a lot of deep balls ,
hard, deep balls. She was serving consistently big. On the contrary, I don't
think I was serving as big. But I don't have as big a serve as her. I don't
think I had a really high percentage. I don't know what it was, but it
didn't seem like it.
Q. Was that a more physical match than your match against Serena in the
final here last year?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Uhm, yeah, it was a totally different match. I think the
level of tennis was a lot higher today from both of us.
Q. A lot of running and defense. Was it exhausting?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don't really feel tired right now. Maybe I'm mentally
tired. But I think the quality of the match, yeah, we had a lot of long
points.
Q. Was there a problem with the rescheduling of the matches?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, no problem.
Q. What was the delay for?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, just because we were second match on. They were
ready to play their first match. So when the courts finally got opened,
you know, we were told that there's going to be a change.
The other two players were ready to go on court, while we thought we were
still playing second match. We had about 20, 25 minutes to get ready, to
warm up and get ready.
Q. You were both fully ready to go on, were you?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, we were all dressed. We just needed to warm up.
That's why it took 25 minutes.
Q. Up until today, you haven't really been pushed in the tournament.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I haven't been pushed (laughter)?
Q. You hadn't dropped a set.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Right. But the matches were still not easy.
Q. This was a totally different level.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Right.
Q. Did you find that counted against you? Do you think maybe she was
ready for a tougher match than you were?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No. I'm always ready for a tough match. It's normal. Like
I say, it's a semifinal. You have to be ready for a tough match. If you're
not, might as well not go on the court.
You know, like I said, it's just one of those days where she played a great
match, and maybe why I do as much as I could have done.
Q. A lot of people are surprised she still has that in her. Are you
surprised that she still has that kind of force and precision, that she
can play like that?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, if she's still playing out here, I think she's always
trying to give the best that she can and always trying to compete and be
better.
I don't think ?? if she was on the court, I don't think she'd just want
to go out there and not do her best and not perform well. I mean, why be
here if you don't want to be the best?
Q. Can you at all compare Venus' level of play against you today to the
Venus you played the two times previously?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, like I said, I think it was the best she played
of the previous encounters. She wasn't making as many errors, and obviously
serving a lot bigger and more consistently. You know, that put a little
bit of pressure on my serve. And I wasn't serving consistently. So she
had the advantage on the return and wasn't making many errors.
Q. What did you think when she missed that first match point? Did you
think you had a chance to get back in?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No. It was just kind of funny, because I thought it was
absolutely over. I mean, I was almost saying hello to the person watching
the match. So, you know, I mean, the whole court was open, she made an
error. I guess the match is still continuing.
Q. You said it's important to hold on to what you have. What are your
feelings now with the loss of your greatest crown?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I'm obviously very sad. I mean, you know, this
tournament means a lot to me more than any other tournament. I guess
there's many more years to come. You know, it's just one of those things
where, you know, you want to win, but you can't.
Q. You'll return to hold up the trophy again on the final Saturday?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I will do everything I can, yeah.
Q. In the first set you were behind continually throughout that set. You
had to fight hard to stay in the first set. You started off the second set
down right away. It seemed like you maybe started going for more shots,
making errors. Was there a reason that you found you started trying to do
more? Her play was too good or you felt you had to do that much to be able
to take control of the match?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, when I was down 5-2 in the first, you know, it was
just one break of serve. But she was just playing, you know, too good, I
thought. And then I was able to break her back. The game where I broke her,
she didn't make as many first serves. I don't know if it's either nerves
or whatever it is, you know, to win the first set. But I felt like, you
know, I still had the chance to make it even because she wasn't serving as
well as she was in the previous games.
So once it got to 5-All, you know, I felt good. Then once we started the
tiebreaker, I just I was down 1-0 and I'm serving and I made two errors
that were about one inch wide. That's the way it goes with tennis. If I
would have made them, you know, who knows what would have happened. We
would have been back on serve.
Q. Was there any point in the match when you divorced yourself from the
score and actually just enjoyed the tennis which was great?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I really try to do the best I can, you know, fight.
I don't know.
Q. But did you enjoy the quality of the tennis?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Oh, yeah, of course. When I came off the court, I knew
the quality was good. But you also know that you lost the match, so it's
hard to think that way.
Q. Looking forward, what are the things you feel you need to maybe improve
a bit in your game or do differently in order to go a couple of rounds
further?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I think I need to be stronger. The stronger I get,
the bigger my serve will be, the easier it will be for me, you know, to
maybe hold serve and get more free points.
But at 18, I don't think it's possible to have a huge consistent serve,
and I realize that and I accept it. I know with hard work and practice
and repetition it will get bigger and stronger and more accurate.
Q. What about taking advantage of the big groundstrokes that you hit and
trying to end the points a little earlier with volleying? Today she had
success coming in at times. If you were able to come in and get more easy
points with the volley.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Thank you. Thanks for the coaching (laughter).
Q. How difficult was it with the rain delay to prepare with sort of
eating, drinking, warming up, psyching up, that sort of thing?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: It was pretty boring. Not much to do. Just eat and wait
around, read. I mean, try to walk around, but there's you realize
there's really nowhere to go.
Q. Have you ever played in a match before where the balls just kept
coming back so hard and deep and in as relentless a manner as it did
today against Venus?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I've played really tough matches before, even
in the juniors. It's hard to say because they're totally different
opponents. I mean, you know, Justine is the kind of player that,
you know, likes to play defense, gets a lot of balls back and waits
for opportunity, you know, to go for a big one. Whereas, you know,
Venus today was hitting, you know, big shots, big on the offensive.
You know, sometimes that works and sometimes you're making every shot
and you feel like you can make every shot from any part of the court,
and sometimes you can make errors.
You know, it's different to say. But I have in the past, yeah.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 203.203.34.44