TENNIS Internazionali BNL d’Italia – A. Ivanovic d M. Sharapova 6-1, 6-4. An interview with Maria Sharapova.
Q: Maybe you suffer too much effort after Madrid, or was she just too good?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No I don’t use Madrid like an excuse. I had a great two weeks, I came here to play a tournament. My energy level today maybe was not at the top of speed, but Anna played a really great match, she came out with winners from all over the court today and she was the better player, that’s it. She was more aggressive than me today, she wasn’t making a lot of mistakes and play consistently her game. I felt that when I had a good shot I didn’t do much on the next one. I had opportunities but I didn’t follow through, and hesitate a little bit. She played a great match, if I was a little quicker, more alert, maybe one break point in the last game maybe the things would have change around, but this can’t take anyway away from the last two weeks and I’m quite excited for the week coming up for the Grand Slams.
Q: How do you spend the next 10 days before going to Paris?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I am going to try to recover the next two or three days, settle down in Paris and get my body ready for a week of training. I’ll have a week of training and I think it’ll be very important.
Q: What are you looking forward to now: mental break or physical break?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: A little bit of both. It’s been such routine in the last few weeks, just matches and training without a day off in while. That’ll be nice to have one or two…. But overall, it’s a combination. You’re used to do very similar things and mentally you don’t give yourself a break and when you go on court you can feel fresh.
