BEIJING, China – A few of the more “notable” quotes from some of Tuesday’s news conferences at the China Open.
Li Na
On finally defeating Nadia Petrova, Li Na was 0-6 against her before Tuesday’s 6-1, 6-2 win:
I think that’s, you know, the charm in playing tennis. Every day you can challenge yourself. You are defeated consecutively, but it doesn’t mean you were defeated by her all the time. This is sport. You never know what’s gonna happen.
I’m very much glad to see that I’m still making progress in this match.
Q. Another question is we noticed when you are in rush a little bit or when you are a little bit impatient you like to say something to your coach, and Carlos has said that you have to calm down. He give you a gesture to make you calm down. In that case, you have a very important role in balancing the relations between you and Carlos?
LI NA: You are absolutely correct. I think before Carlos jump in, I didn’t have any intent to share with my team. But I’m not sure ‑‑ how did you spot the detail that when I start to be impatient Carlos told me to calm down?
I have to share this information to Carlos. I think he will definitely share the same thing with me.
Q. I will follow the questions from the previous reporters. When you employed the coach, you definitely need some time to get along with the coaches. How long does that take between you and your coach Carlos? When people are choosing the coaches they have to have some standard. Since you have already chose Carlos to be your coach, does it mean that you will follow his suggestions or instructions all the time?
So actually when we meet for the first time, he told me that why he didn’t choose to coach player until he came to China for one year after and give me a lot of reasons. So after I chosen him definitely I will give a lot of credit or confidence to him.
Even my team we have meeting on a regular basis. We make a plan, and everybody will play their role. It’s not the case that we just work out, you know, a temporary solution. We have overall schedule or plan, all of us already.
I really have to say he’s very good coach. I mean, he’s not only teach me how to play tennis. It’s more important for, how you say, the whole team to make the goal. And also, he was teach me a lot how to doing on the court. I mean, before I was always like easy to explosion on the court. Now I think I change a lot.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
On the increase in prize money at the Australian Open:
I think it’s a good thing for tennis, not only for players but for tennis. It means, you know, tennis is going well. I hope, you know, tennis will continue to do well.
Q. I know this was kind of at the end of the match, and you were probably focused on other things, but did you happen to catch the sleeping girl on the Jumbotron after the crowd woke her up?
JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: Yeah, I saw her.
Q. Can you believe she was sleeping that late in the match when it was getting that close?
JO‑WILFRIED TSONGA: I mean, I can understand. Sometimes when I watch some review of me, sometimes I sleep too. (Laughter.)
Victoria Azarenka
On playing Lisicki:
Yeah, she’s a very dangerous opponent. I knew that, and so that was important to try to be focused right from the beginning to take control, not to let her into the game to start, you know, going for her shots, because she’s kind of player that doesn’t give much of a rhythm. She likes to take control right from the very beginning.
I felt like I played really well in the beginning and took all of my opportunities. You know, I was maintaining from then a very high level.
Her opinion on the WTA’s attempt to try to control grunting in the future:
Well, honestly I mentioned it before already, and I don’t really know how it’s going to happen, but it’s going to be in the future. It’s not going to be concerning our generation.
So it’s a little bit difficult for me to judge, but I guess we’ll see what happens. I don’t really feel there is something to comment before it actually happens. You know, we can see the results from there.
I understand there are few concerns about it, but in the near future, I don’t see that changing too much.
On the increased prize money at the Australian Open:
Yeah, I actually just read the news today. Any comments, we just have to be really happy about it, you know, and thank, you know, the players who helped make it happen in the tournament of course to increase the prize money.
I mean, we are really lucky, and I’m really happy about it.
I think everybody in general wants more money, not only in tennis. (Laughter.)
It’s fair enough, but I feel like there has been already, you know, a step forward. We can only make it better, and I think that’s the plan from all the players to do that. We have to be more united to make that, you know, bigger statement.
I feel like the Grand Slams, the other ones, have to take a good example from what the Australian Open did.
Novak Djokovic
On defeating Berrer
He’s a big guy and he chips the ball really well. It was definitely unusual because not many players do that, and I had to make the adjustment as the match was going on.
I had tough time to really return his serve in the second, because he went for precision more than really speed of his first serves. He had very high percentage of first serves in, and, you know, he put a lot of pressure on my serves coming in.
He deserved to win the second set. He pushed the second set into a tiebreak where he hasn’t missed the first serve and came into the net a couple of times, played some really good points.
On the increased prize money at the Australian Open:
“Great news for every player that plays this sport.” A fight for a great share of revenue is “not over yet.”
It’s a step forward, definitely
They have clearly shown understanding for players’ demands and what the players had to say, so that’s really nice to see.
Obviously there are other Grand Slams that need to react, and we are still in negotiations and we are still doing it behind closed doors.
Tennis Panorama News is in Beijing this week covering the China Open. Follow the updates on Twitter @TennisNewsTPN.
