14/01/2012 15:08 CEST - Interviews

Caroline Wozniacki

Q. Last year you thrilled us with stories about a kangaroo.
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I'm sorry I didn't bring my kangaroo with me this time. I'm sure he might show up later during the week (smiling).

Q. No other run‑ins or interesting stories for us this year?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I don't know. I mean, I just got here, so nothing really interesting has happened yet. Maybe in the near future maybe something interesting will happen. I'll keep you updated.

Q. How is the wrist, on a serious note?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Well, it's okay. It's getting better. I'll be ready to play on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. It's exciting to start the first Grand Slam of the year.

Q. Is it a hundred percent or do you have a percentage figure? Is it still painful?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It will be a hundred percent.

Q. You've been No. 1 for some time now. How important is it for you now to win a Grand Slam event?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Obviously every time you go into a tournament, you want to try to win it. Yeah, I want to try to win here. We'll see if that will happen. You need to play the best tennis to do that.
You know, I've been No. 1 for a long time already. Now my main focus is just to win as many tournaments as possible and the ranking will get there, will be there, if you play well.

Q. You've been remarkably healthy for the past couple years. How concerning is it to have a left wrist injury with your backhand being maybe your best shot going into a Grand Slam?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yeah, I mean, I've been pretty lucky with injuries. I mean, I've had some small ones also with the ankles and things.
But obviously you want to be a hundred percent healthy. I feel confident that my wrist will be okay for Monday. Yeah, I mean, obviously also leading up to a tournament, playing in Sydney, of course when it happened, I really felt the sharp pain, I was a bit concerned. But now it feels good, so I'm okay.

Q. How was it emotionally to deal with it that night?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yeah, it makes you a bit scared. Should maybe not have finished the match. I should maybe just have cut it off in the third set. But, you know, I'm a competitor. I wanted to try to do my best out there.
Obviously it's a bit scary when you're out there. You don't know. But, I mean, everything turned out to be okay with the wrist. You know, I had some pain, but it's going away. I'm confident that on Monday it will be a hundred percent ready, so...
But that's a great thing for me to know, then I can compete at a hundred percent.

Q. Can you talk about your work with Ricardo Sanchez. You had how much time with him in the off‑season, five or six weeks? What was he specifically trying to do with you?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: He was trying to do a few things. But, again, my dad was still on the court. They were talking together about the practices and things. Just trying to improve everything really.
But, yeah, I think for me I know my game by now. Even though maybe I'm still young, it's my ninth time here, I couldn't really believe it. I start to know what I need for my game and what I need to improve.
We just talk. Everybody talks about it. We figure out some exercises that goes specifically on that.

Q. How is it your ninth time here?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: 13. So 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

Q. What did you do when you were 13?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I played the juniors here.

Q. Some of your memories of that?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It doesn't feel too long ago actually. We were having the players lounge under the Hisense Arena. Back then it was called something different.
But, yeah, I mean, I saw the big stars play. You know, you got over here, you could have a sneak peek of the big names at that time. I remember someone once confused me with Daniela Hantuchova (laughter). They thought I just finished up a mixed doubles. They were like, Daniela, can we have your autograph? I said, I'm not Daniela. They said, Yes, you are, we just saw you. That was very funny. I remember that.
I even remember where I played. I think I played on the last court on the left. So, yeah, it's fun to think back. A lot of things have happened since then. Yeah, I played the finals here, as well, in the juniors one year. So it's good memories.

Q. Just before the injury, talk about coming into this season, mentally where you were, what you really wanted to try to do in the first month, other than saying, I want to play well and do my best. What were some of your concrete goals?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I was really happy that I could play Hopman Cup because you're guaranteed three matches. You know that you can try to see how it feels to play a real match because you've been practicing for one and a half months. It's so much different to go off the practice courts, even when you play points, to go to a real match.
My goal there was to try all the things out, see maybe where I needed a little bit of extra tuning up. Yeah, then after that I had a few days of practice, then I played in Sydney. Even though I had a bit of a slow start, I still managed to win the first match.
Yeah, the most important thing is what I practiced on, that I could do that in a match. That was my main goal, to be honest. I know that if I play on my high level and if I play the way I want to play, it's really tough to beat me.
Yeah, it's just to get all these things. So now it's nice. I've gotten some matches. I feel confident in my game and hopefully I can play well here.