Anastasia Potapova has labelled the player media boycott as ‘nonsense’ as she prepares for Roland Garros.
The Austrian is preparing for her Roland Garros campaign as she has had a successful clay court season so far.
After her deep run to the Madrid semi-finals, Potapova is the 28th seed for this year’s Roland Garros.
Now Potapova is excited about Roland Garros and spoke about her form in Madrid, “I’m very excited to be here every year,” Potapova said in her pre-tournament press conference.
“I enjoying this week I think the most through the whole season that we have. I really like clay. I like Paris. I like everything about here. So, yeah, and I mean, my clay season has been really great. Of course, I still have room to improve, and that’s exactly the weeks where you want to do that. Yeah, I mean, I expecting from myself a lot, but at the same time, I’m ready to learn every day. No matter what happens, it will not bother me or stop me for the future.
“Despite some injuries that I’ve had in the beginning of the season that hold me back a little bit. I think it also why I can say that I feel in my best shape ever. I think it also comes with a maturity and with the growth that I’ve had in the last couple of years.
“Definitely that helps. I think that’s already completely new mindset and completely new emotions that I’m going through now based on all the experience. For sure, it helps, and it feels great. As I said, it doesn’t matter what will happen in the next days, weeks, months. I’m ready to work and to improve every day.”
After a confident clay court swing, Potapova is hoping for a deep run in Paris.
However, the Austrian hasn’t got an easy draw with defending champion Coco Gauff awaiting in the third round.
The draw isn’t fazing Potapova who is preparing for her first round match against Maya Joint, “Yes, I did look, because I’m not scared of facing these things. It’s normal. It’s our life,” Potapova acknowledged.
“Obviously, yes, it’s not easy draw, but I don’t think any other draw I would call it easy, because everybody’s good here. And everybody’s ready to stay on this court until they die, so they want to win that bad. Yeah, for me, again, if we look back at the tournaments in Madrid and in Rome, we can see a lot of surprises, a lot of uncommon results, and something new.
“So in this moment I don’t really want to look forward. At the paper, yes, we have this, but in fact we don’t know what can happen, right? So if it happens, then maybe we talk about it with you on Friday or on Thursday, but at the moment we still have some work to do before this third round.
“I’m not even sure I’m going to be there, so I cannot say it. So at the moment I’m just looking step by step and only focusing on my first round match, because it’s also not easy, I think. My opponent is good. She just outside of being seeded. It’s not the easiest first draw here. So, yeah, I mean, got some work to do before that.”
Potapova is focused on the court and getting as deep as possible at Roland Garros.
However, the main topic off the court has been the player media protest in response to the Grand Slams not increasing prize money.
The Austrian has labelled this as ‘nonsense’ as she gave her opinion on the situation, “If you want my honestly opinion on that, I think media guys has nothing to do with our prize money. You don’t pay us, right?”
“So how we can boycott somebody who also getting paid from the
same tournament? I think for me it’s a little bit nonsense, so I’m not really into this, so here I am and talking to you as much as I want.”
