TENNIS WTA Stuttgart – Radwanska d Vinci 6-3, 6-2. An Interview with Agnieszka Radwanska
This was your first match on clay this year and it seems you adapt very well?
Well, I think it’s no easy matches here and of course she is a very good clay court player. We have played a couple of times. So, I knew what to expect and I knew what to do to beat her. I think today I was really playing very good tennis. It was my first match here. So, it’s always tricky. Well, I can’t really complain about anything today. Two sets on clay is always good.
How can you imagine your season? Are you satisfied with your game on clay?
It wasn’t really my first match on clay. I played Fed Cup on clay but, of course, Spanish clay is different than this one. So, it’s just a different surface. But I was here on Monday, practiced a couple of times on this surface. Of course, it is a little bit faster and slippery. But everybody has the same conditions. You just have to get used to it.
You said you didn’t have anything unusual. Now, you were taped. Is there something new?
Well you know, two matches on Sunday. It was a lot. Especially it was very slow, it was raining, heavy balls, tough matches.
Is it to be more comfortable if you’re taped even though you don’t have anything?
No, I really don’t do that. My skin is so tired from the tapes so if it’s all good I’m not taping my shoulder. I don’t have a skin anymore.
How would you rate your performance?
I think today was a pretty good match. I was playing very aggressive, serving not bad and moving I think okay on this surface. I think two sets against someone who is playing very good on clay is a very good score. We’ll see in the other matches but, of course, here there’s no easy opponent. So, it’s hard to say the goals because every match is like the second round of the Grand Slams.
A more general question. Can you share with us one of the best coaching tips ever received. It can be technical, it can be strategic?
I don’t know but I think when you’re very very nervous and sometimes want too much it is a good thing, a good joke, just to relax because when you want too much it’s bad. Just to relax a little bit and be focused.
Who gave you that tip?
It was a couple of times my coach.
Can we ask you about Fed Cup? Poland is now in the World Group. Would you like a different kind of format, like maybe one week or do you like this format with Fed Cup in between other tournaments?
Ever since I think 2006 I’ve played Fed Cup every year and I think the schedule is very tight and we play a lot. The season is very long but I’m always happy to play and always find the time to play and help my team to go up. I think we all did a good job. We came from the lowest group possible and now we are in the World Group. This is the one thing for the Polish history in tennis. So, I think this is a great thing. So, I’m very very happy that we achieved that.
Are you committed to train or help young tennis players in Poland and is there any programme you are supporting?
Yes, I’m supporting a programme for the kids of ten years and all the stuff to use the soft balls, small courts and not start really from the big courts and heavy balls.
Do you still have your university book with you?
Yes. But it’s pretty much the same answer: the season is so tight that sometimes I don’t really have time to go. But I’m almost in the third year. I just have two more exams to finish the second year to be in the third year. So, I’m working on it. So, I’m still there. They didn’t kick me out.
