Wednesday, May 27, 2009

French Open--what they said

(Alize Cornet's remarks are translated.)

What did Pierre tell you?
"Well, Pierre talked and talked and talked to me. He drowned me in words."
Alize Cornet

Doyou feel that she's (Ana Ivanovic) capable of winning this tournament?
"For what I am here?"
Dinara Safina

Did you have pleasure playing on the central court with all these people who supported you over these two days?
"I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to tell you, wow, that was great, I made the most of each moment. To be honest, I played the first part of my match in the night, so it was a bit difficult. Then this morning I walked. I was very much under pressure. I didn't want to play three sets, so yes, there was pleasure. People are supporting me playing on the big court, and I practiced all year round to experience that feeling. But I didn't experience the extreme feeling--the feeling of extreme joy you have, I had, sometimes last year."
Alize Cornet

"...it's great to have someone who can take care about practices so I don't have to even think about it. I can just relax and switch off."
Ana Ivanovic, on having a full-time coach

"...the doctors said I will not be able to play until summer, and I recovered pretty good, pretty fast. I tried to play the Australian. Probably even though I don't feel much of a difference, but neurologically, I'm still a little behind."
Nadia Petrova

"So I really wanted to take a week off to ask myself the appropriate questions and ask myself why I want to do that, why I want to play tennis, why I love that so much, why I don't seem to love it so much anymore. And in one week, well, I realized that tennis is in my bloodstream, it's in my system, and this is what I want to do, and this is what I love doing. I think if I had not taken that break, I would not have realized it. So, of course, now I arrive here, and arriving here, I'm much more clear about what I want to do than when I went to Rome or Madrid. In Rome and Madrid, I played becauseI had to. Here, I play because I want to."
Alize Cornet

Did you already have a chat with your coach? Was he happy?
"If one day he's going to be happy, I think I'll finish my career. He's never happy. Even today, he's not happy."
Dinara Safina

2 comments:

Rob said...

I'm looking forward to reading Alize's comments after her play Thursday.

Diane said...

She sums it up as a combination of poor response to stress and inadequate physical conditioning. Sounds about right to me.