TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – 24th of January 2015. V.Azarenka d. B. Zahlavova Strycova 6-4, 6-4. An interview with Victoria Azarenka
Q. With every round as you play these matches, are you getting more confident with each one?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I take it as a progress. You know, it’s just another match, another opportunity to improve. You know, I have a different opponent, so it’s kind of difficult to compare the level or the quality because it’s different styles. But I just happy that I managed to go through my matches. There are things that obviously I want to improve. But, you know, it’s a progress. It’s one step closer. So I’m happy I have another opportunity to play Monday.
Q. How far away would you say you are from your level when you won here?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I would never want to compare that because I think the game itself progressed a lot and I do feel I played better than I was playing two years ago. I think the women’s tennis level went up, so I don’t like to compare the past. I just want to look forward to the future. I think my game evolved. I’m just heading towards better than looking how I used to play.
Q. When you were out going through recovery and struggles, did you ever have any moments where you thought you might not get to the top? Have you had a moment where you know you’re back, ready to roll?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I think it’s very normal and very human to be able to have doubts, to question whether you’re going to be able to do it or not. But I think the approach to those thoughts is what counts and what brings you to be a champion. That’s what brought me to all my success that I had in the past, to what I’m doing right now. Being able to control those doubts, really fight through them. They’re going to come up. You just have to be able to accept that challenge and really grind. I think compete, grind, those things what make you work through all those doubts.
Q. How did you mentally fight the doubts?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I just want to be able to focus on my effort. I think that’s one thing you really can control. That’s what I’m going to do.
Q. Do you feel you’ve changed during this fight back, as a person?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I don’t think I’ve changed as a person. I think I grew as a person. I think I’m able to speak my thoughts more freely, which before I think I was holding back and really was trying to fit into some kind of image that a lot of people, a lot of players do. I think it’s very important to stay original, to stay yourself, true to yourself, to who you are. So I think I had to learn that and just be able to live with that and accept who I am as a person. I think it’s a matter of maturity. But I still have a lot of room to improve, but I love the way where I’m heading.
Q. The match point, is that the never-give-up attitude that you had?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: When I missed the overhead, I really had some bad words in my head that I thought about. It was really passionate, with a lot of probably anger in it. I’m not going to say them because you’re going to have to bleep all of them out. Okay, I missed it, but the ball is still there, so I got to go. I didn’t really think about it for too long. I think my version of bad words were pretty short, so I was able to get the other ball.
Q. You talked about staying true to your originality. How are you an original?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: How am I an original? Well, first of all, look at my leggings. There’s not many players who can pull that off (smiling). What do you think about them?
Q. Not bad.
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I don’t know how to describe that. I’m just being me. I say what I want to say. I laugh when I want to laugh. I play how I want to play. I grunt when I want to grunt.
Q. You swear how you want to swear?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: I do.
Q. You were talking about speaking freely, the sort of change that’s come over since the time away, but trying not to stay in that certain image that you said others are in. What is that image?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Maybe I didn’t put it the right way. How do I describe that? Like media training, you don’t know sometimes what to say. You get trained by the media and you can hold back your thoughts. In this kind of thing, whatever I think, I’m just going to speak, and that’s it. I don’t really want to say that somebody is doing or trying to be like somebody else. Maybe that’s not the right way to put it. I just want to be free to speak what I think. And I didn’t do that before.
Q. In other words, not cover up, and just speak your mind?
VICTORIA AZARENKA: Yeah. I think you’re trying to be likable. It’s not a question about being popular, but you want people to like you. Obviously, everybody does. You don’t want to be a person nobody likes. But just to be honest and to be respected to other players. I think what people don’t talk about is the way the women’s game changed, as well. We don’t have that much tension between others when you’re off the court. I love that. You speak with other players. It’s more fun. We have to be respectful. I mean, I know we compete against each other. But to have that bond, I think it’s very important because we see each other so much. Just to be respectful and nice to each other. I think it’s very important.
