02/09/2011 00:13 CEST - INTERVISTE

Andrea Petkovic (01-09-2011)

Q. Did you have any specific strategies coming into this match, like play against Zheng?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I prepared myself definitely. I never played her. It's always different I watch a lot of videos. I watched her play live in Cincinnati, but it's always different when you feel the ball of the opponent than watching it on TV.
I think she plays well. I think she's very solid. I think for me she's definitely a top 20 player if she recovers from her injuries. She had bad injuries.
So I think it was a tough match, and she plays well. I just tried to mix it up, you know, stay tough, and tried to be dominant in the game.
In the beginning I had a very slow start, but afterwards I think I was playing better.

Q. You seemed especially happy in your post match dance. Do you think it was because you had to face such an uphill battle after losing the first set?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, definitely. It was the comeback, it was the energy of the audience. I think they really brought me back into the match. And also with the background I'm coming in, every match is very special for me right now.
I didn't know if I was gonna play at all, so every match that I win is just a huge, yeah, huge victory for me. So turning this around was very special for me.

Q. You're obviously wearing a lot less tape this week than you were back in Cincinnati. How's the knee feeling?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, the problem with my knee is, you know, it's feeling much better, but the problem is I don't have constant pain. I just have a sharp pain every like four or five games. That's even worse, because after that I have like two or three games where I get off my game because I'm not moving well because I'm scared to go into the corners.
It's not that bad, actually. The pain comes, you know, and the time until the pain comes gets wider and wider, which is a good sign.
But still when it comes I'm scared and I start not running. You know, I am hesitating to run, and then I lose a few games very fast because I'm not moving well.
It's just a mindset, I think. I'm trying to work on it, but it's not easy because obviously it's the injured knee, and so I'm always more scared than normal.

Q. Do any other athletes out there in other sports remind you of yourself?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: In any kind of sports or in tennis?

Q. Any sport.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Do you have anyone in mind? (Smiling).
I don't know. I'm just me.

Q. Your personality, the way you show color on the court.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Sorry?

Q. The personality and the way you show color on the court.
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Uh huh. I don't know. I really don't know.
I don't have any tattoos and piercings so I wouldn't say Dennis Rodman. No, I don't know. I'm just trying to be myself.

Q. Were you kind of sad that he stopped doing those?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I was. Yeah, I was. Because, you know, I mean, at one point I don't think there is anybody in the world who doesn't really care at all what other people say or think. That's just impossible.
But at one point, you know, I think you start to care too much or also a lot of people are telling you what to do and what not to do. So it's not always easy, but obviously he made the right choices. He's No. 1 in the world, so I guess it's good what he's doing.

Q. Who are your favorite male players to watch?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Tsonga.

Q. Why?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think he's spectacular just the way he plays. He's just playing so risky and smashing the ball with the forehand and coming in, and I think it's always when he's on fire, it's just amazing to watch.
And Rafa Nadal because of the intensity he has on court every, each single point.

Q. Obviously there has been a gap since Steffi Graf. Nowadays can you use her for anything, like just talk to her and see what's...
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Oh, yeah. That's the only thing I think we can do. It would be nonsense to start comparing us to her, any of us, I mean. We are all our own personality. We all try. You know, we all try to do our best.
But the best thing we can do according to Steffi is taking her positive things out, her attitude, her working spirit, her, you know, everything that she did well. She was always my idol, so for me it's easy. But I think also the other girls admire her a lot.
That's the best thing we can do. Instead of comparing us, just look up to her and getting the best out of her.

Q. Some people say the Germans are coming now; there is a big, nice group. There is always this hunger in America; when is the next big American coming? Do you understand that? Does it mystify you? Do you like it? Or is it overkill?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: You know, I think that we had the same right before we started playing well this year, we had the same always: When is somebody gonna play well finally? When is somebody gonna get through in the Grand Slams? When? When? When?
So it's this sort of waiting, and then once somebody's there it's not like, Oh, finally it's there, but it's then like, Okay, let's go and put some pressure on them. It's just the typical thing. It's just a normal development of the press, and I think it's funny, actually. I like it. It's fun.

Q. What does it say that on the one hand the best player in German history, really of all time perhaps arguably, Steffi, was so focused. She had that laser focus, all business, and yet others say, Serena, certainly yourself what does that say about the nature of the game and how it can be approached differently?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I think, you know, if you would see me work on the court and if you would see me practice you would know that I'm more than 100% focused and working more than anybody on the tour, and I think Serena also does that.
It's just a matter of, you know, expressing yourself offcourt also if you need that. If you don't need it, don't do it. But I think the more you develop your personality and character off the court, the more it helps you also on the court. I really think so.
I think definitely Serena is one of those players, also Maria and Venus. You know, they are those players who need that, who cannot be one dimensional, but who need all these other things to feel well on court.
As long as they are focused me too as long as you're focused in the work on the court and in what you have to do to be 100% on the court, then I'm doing that.

Q. Do you ever feel that the officiating is keeping down the personality, your personality or Tsonga's, these other players that you like? Do you feel that at all these days?
ANDREA PETKOVIC: It can be like this sometimes, yes. But, I mean, in the end it's up to yourself. You have to decide if you, you know, if you start like forming yourself to what the audience expects from you to not get any bad critics. It's just up to yourself.
Or you don't care and you just try to pull it through. It's not easy, but I mean, nothing is easy in life. (Smiling.)

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