2010 U.S. Open Tennis Interview Room Quotes - Week One
Selected quotes from the players’ post-match press conferences at the 2010 U.S. Open tennis tournament...
Commenting on returning to the U.S. Open as the defending champion…
KIM CLIJSTERS: I mean, for these last few weeks already preparing for the Open I've been trying to get, obviously get my game back. But just to come out there and defending my title, I think I've never been in that position, and so it was, yeah, like I said, it couldn't have come any faster because I wanted it to, you know, I wanted it to happen for a while, and I was just excited to go out there.
Commenting on whether she still gets nervous…
KIM CLIJSTERS: Um, yeah. I mean, it's not nerves where, you know, you have nerves where your arm feels like it's 50 kilos. Um, not like that. Which was obviously something, you know, in my first, you know, my first few tournaments when I came on tour in those big matches. Obviously, you know, when you know you can serve for a match or play those big matches, obviously the nerves sometimes can take over, a lot of your physical -- the way that you play and the way that you're feeling. So, no, I don't have that anymore, because I know when the nerves are coming, what to do, how to relax, and what to focus on. I think that's through experience and something I've learned.
Commenting on the effect of being married on his tennis career…
ROGER FEDERER: No, not really. I guess in soccer guys marry and have kids much faster than in tennis. In tennis I guess very often financially you're never quite safe, because for a long time at least, you know, because injury can hit at any time. You don't have a five‑year contract. Who is going to take care of you and stuff? So it's very much living day by day. You're young, you know. 25, either you're working or you're going to school, and we're not in one place like one place like maybe soccer players are. You have a tendency to marry later, and later also in your career you start to maybe not play as well. I don't believe in all those statistics, you know, because, uhm, that's just the way our life is. We cannot get married that early. And if we do, you're not going to see the other person maybe for over 50% of the year. It's hard to keep up a good relationship, I find. I was lucky enough that the last seven or eight years, I've been every day together basically with Mirka, and that has definitely helped me, you know, to be good. I feel married since a long time, not just since last year. That's for sure… have the same fire, the same drive. I thought it might have a little impact on my schedule, it might play less, have an impact on how I practiced, maybe early mornings so I could get back and stuff because I have to wake up early. It's so well set up. Mirka takes such great care. I'm there anyway most all the time as well that I can place my practice whenever I want. I still have enough time with them. Honestly, the transition was very smooth. I'm very happy about it, of course.
Commenting on turning 28 in the beginning of the 2010 U.S. Open…
ANDY RODDICK: I don't really think about it, because it makes no difference what I think about it. It's like you go out there and give the best of what you got on that day. I'm not going to that's kind of the way I've always done my career. You wake up in the morning and you put what you can into that single day. So, you know, obviously I know I'm probably closer to finished than I am to the start. But I don't know. It's a number. I'm barely older than I was yesterday, so...
Explaining why he is more uncomfortable at the U.S. Open compared to the other Grand Slams…
RAFAEL NADAL: Is the more difficult for me, especially I think because the ball. The ball is the more difficult thing for me because the ball I think is more easy to play that ball for the players when they have the flat shots, no? That's much easier for them than for the topspin players. That's the only thing. But I won Olympics with this ball. I won in Beijing in 2005 with this ball. I can do it.
Commenting on playing in extremely hot conditions…
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, the night before, as well, try and drink a lot, eat as much good stuff as you can. And then I use an ice towel pretty much from the first changeover. I wore a hat today. I've hardly worn a hat for the last four or five years. And, yeah, they're the only things you can do. I put a lot of sunblock on and train hard. That's probably the biggest thing you can do to help yourself.
Commenting after his upset loss in the second round to Janko Tipsarevic…
ANDY RODDICK: He played great tonight. You know, on my little cheat sheet that Larry and I put together, I wanted to keep my unforced errors down, which I did. You know, he's going to take big swings and pot shots at the ball. I wanted to make him do that from stretch positions, maybe on the move; I did that. I wanted to get a very high percentage of returns in play; I did that. I think it was close to 75% of returns in play. You know, I thought I hit the ball pretty well. I thought he played very high risk and executed for four sets. I kept telling myself, You know, this has to have an expiration date on it. Unfortunately, I needed another set for that.
Commenting on the challenge of being a “working married mother” on the Tour…
KIM CLIJSTERS: Biggest challenge? Obviously I think balancing, you know, time just for myself, knowing when I'm happy with the amount of time that I spend with Jada and the amount of time I have to put in to play good tennis. Obviously in the beginning it took some time to get used to because obviously as a mother you feel guilty sometimes, you know, if you go off to practice or, you know, if you're injured, you have to go off to get treatment. That was something that I probably struggled with a little bit in the beginning. You know, still sometimes, I mean, obviously my team, they know that it's important for me to, you know, have that time, you know, with Brian and with Jada, because otherwise I'm going to look at tennis as kind of something that interferes with my private life. So it needs -- it's a very delicate -- you know, there's a fine line. But so far it's been going good. As I've been on the road now for almost a year, it just gets easier and easier. Jada is getting older, so it's getting easier.
Commenting on dealing with expectations…
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Um, the expectations maybe from the outside has changed, but from myself I always go into a tournament and I want to win it. Doesn't really matter what tournament I'm playing, and I always believe in myself. It's not always possible to win every tournament, but at least I give it a shot. You know, the only time I get disappointed with myself is if I feel like I haven't given 100%. You know, I'm almost always giving 100%. It's just about if I lose a match, okay, the opponent was just playing better than me that day, and I need to get back and work harder and be better for next time.
Commenting on the impact of the addition of Paul Annacone to his coaching team…
ROGER FEDERER: No. I mean, when I'm playing great, regardless of who's in my player box, I can beat anybody, you know. It's about being consistent and being confident in the way I play. I'm not all of a sudden going to play a two handed backhand or serve and volley on my second serve nonstop. It's just not gonna happen. It's in the details, and it's very important to me what Paul tells me and what Severin also tells me, who I've been with for three years now. It's an interesting, you know, time right now, because I went through times where I thought every time was interesting for me, because I went through times where I didn't have a coach, I had times where I had two coaches, as well, one coach. Here we are at the stage again where there's someone new to the team, and I kind of like those times, yeah
Commenting on what she feels when a child or junior player says she looks up to Maria or idolizes her…
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Uhm, it's strange. It's really strange because I've always had a difficult time accepting, you know, when little kids, whether I'm doing a clinic, talking to them, when they tell me they want to be just like me not only is a bit overwhelming and a bit of a shock, it's kind of strange. I mean, I'm certainly far from perfect. I have many things I'm not good at. I always say to them, You should want to be better than, uhm, me or anyone else. I think maybe that's one of the reasons growing up, you know, I idolized a certain part of someone's game but I never thought that someone was so good that I wanted to be like them. I think that's a good point is, you know, she probably said one of my strengths. Obviously, that's something that's gotten me through so many matches in my career. In tennis, being strong and steady mentally sometimes more than physically is more important on certain days.
Commenting on how she handles compliments…
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, I get kind of shy about it… I don't openly talk about my imperfections in front of them (laughter). Uhm, but I just smile and say, Thank you. Then I just think about it. Like, No, you want to be better than me.
Describing her life at home in Belgium…
KIM CLIJSTERS: I mean, it's home. They're both home. I think you create that home atmosphere. You know, I even try to create it in our hotel room. No, I mean, it's obviously nice to go to a place that you're familiar and you can cook yourself and do everything kind of yourself. But obviously, you know, my childhood memories are in Belgium. You know, I still live in the same street as my parents used to live, where I grew up; my grandparents live next door. I mean, that's what I love, and that's obviously what I go back to, you know, when I go back after the US Open. That's what I look forward to the most is going back and just being there.
Comparing the speed of the court and balls at Wimbledon to the U.S. Open…
ANDY MURRAY: It's quite clear the balls are a lot faster, a little bit harder to control the balls. Guys are serving harder. But I think the court itself I think grass is definitely still quicker than here. I just think because of the warm weather and obviously the balls being they seem very light in comparison to the Slazengers, which are pretty heavy. I think it's just a little bit harder to control the ball on the return. Obviously guys serve a little bit bigger, which might make it a bit harder for Rafa to break.
Commenting on her U.S. Open dresses…
VENUS WILLIAMS: I mean, so far this year my outfits have been based off of cities that I play in. This outfit was really about New York. It's firework bursts actually on the dress. It's like bursts of fireworks. It's about a celebration of me playing my best obviously at home and kind of doing what I love and being able to wear something fun while I do it. So just always trying to do something fun on the court.
Commenting on whether he feels pressure to win the U.S. Open and complete the career Grand Slam…
RAFAEL NADAL: You know, I gonna say what I think seriously. I don't think about win this tournament now. So probably the pression is going to be there any day if I am in the final. But before that remains too much to have the pression to win. I have the pression, like every Grand Slam. And, believe me, I have less pressure here than when I play in Roland Garros. So is completely different. And, you know, is like I need to play well a lot of matches. So remain a lot. I am not thinking about the victory. Maybe in any moment I think about the win here and complete the four Grand Slams, maybe, yes, is pressure. But seriously, for me I think about point by point and winning next match. So right now I am very happy to win today and think about Simon.
Commenting on who she wanted to be like when she was growing up…
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, you know, to be honest, Kournikova was always for me the girl that I thought was just I wanted to be like her, definitely, you know. I thought she was very pretty; she was handling everything really nicely. You saw her everywhere in the commercials. I think I would more go for Kournikova.
Explaining what happens to her tennis dresses once she stops wearing them…
VENUS WILLIAMS: They get retired. A lot of times people ask me for them. There aren't many, so I don't really give them away. But like the Wimbledon museum asked me for one of my -- the Tina Turner dress. I think maybe the Tennis Hall of Fame maybe asked me for the can-can from the French. So of course that's awesome when people ask me for those. But other than that, they get retired, and... You know, historically I've saved like one of each dress. I do a lot of the organizing at the house, so I'll save one of Serena's, too. Lately she's taken over that. But I think at the end of the day, I think, you know, to have an exhibition of all the dresses we've worn, I think that be -- it would be very interesting, I think. Hopefully that will happen one day.
Describing what she thinks about when she’s not playing well in a match…
VENUS WILLIAMS: I think just to stay positive. I think some of my matches that were bad, at least the ones that I was feeling pretty solid, I mean, physically, I think I expect so much from myself that I just get a little disappointed that I wasn't playing as well. So it's important not to really care whether or not you miss that last shot or the last 20, just to focus on the next one. It will just be important for me to, Okay, hey, maybe I'm not playing as well as I expected, but doesn't matter; just get the ball in the court.
Commenting on his improved/faster serving at the 2010 U.S. Open…
RAFAEL NADAL: I didn't serve very well in the previous tournaments. But I started to serve well the week before the tournament, a few days before the tournament start. I changed a little bit the grip, but that's all.
Commenting after his upset loss to Stan Wawrinka in the third round…
ANDY MURRAY: In the third and fourth sets I said, yeah, I was struggling physically and I got frustrated with that. But I haven't been in that position for a very long time. You know, maybe I felt like my chance of doing well here was slipping away. I've worked very hard to give myself a chance of winning tournaments. You know, when I was struggling physically, I got disappointed. But, I'm sorry, that happens. I think it happens to everyone in life at different points. I just, yeah, struggled in the third and fourth sets today. That's it.
Assessing his season after losing at the U.S. Open…
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, I played great tennis in Australia. I played very well in Wimbledon. You know, like I said, the Masters Series this summer went very well. I was poor from the Australian Open till about the French/Wimbledon time. But I've had two very good majors and two where I haven't been so good. But I've lost to Roger, who's probably the best ever. I lost to Rafa, who I think will be the second best, if not the best, ever. You know, Berdych, who played great tennis this year. And, you know, today was a match I probably should have won. The one in the majors that I lost that I probably should have won. So I'm disappointed.
Commenting on whether he thinks he will win a Grand Slam singles title…
ANDY MURRAY: I have no idea of whether I'll win a Grand Slam or not. You know, I want to. But, you know, I mean, if I never win one, then what? If I give a hundred percent, try my best, physically work as hard as I can, practice as much as I can, then that's all I can do, you know. It's something I would love to do. It's a very difficult thing. But, uhm, I don't know. I don't know if I'll win a Grand Slam or not. But I'll give it my best shot.
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