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DONGFENG MOTOR WUHAN OPEN


September 24, 2014


Timea Bacsinszky


WUHAN, CHINA

T. BACSINSZKY/M. Sharapova
7‑6, 7‑5


THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  (Through translation.)  After the match you seemed to be very excited.  How do you evaluate your performance today?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  Well, it's my first top 5 win, so I guess you're all the time happy when it's a big win like this, especially against a great champion like Maria.  When I just had a look on her results this year, she never lost also in two sets, so I was just really, really proud of myself, even knowing that I went through a lot of things to come back here.
So for sure I didn't know if I had to cry or smile, you know, all those feelings.  You have no idea how to deal with that.  That happened.  I did both, and it was great (smiling).
I loved it.  I hope it will happen lots of times again.

Q.  (Through translation.)  Your form is getting better and better.  So how did you adjust yourself?  How did you maintain the good momentum?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  This year I lost a lot of times tight games or like on big courts.  So all of those losses made me tougher.  It helped me a lot like to do this upset today.  I really tried, as the other days, not really to think about who was against me.  I was just more focusing on, okay, well, this is the match plan.  That's what I want to do from the beginning till the end.
Well, it worked out from the beginning on, so I sticked with it.  Yeah, I just stayed focused and realized that, anyway, it's only a tennis match.  So if I lose it, it's not a big deal.  And if I win it, it's just great.

Q.  You're talking about how it was just a tennis match no matter what, and I think probably a lot of people in this room don't know why that is your perspective just coming back and almost retiring and now first top 5 win.  Can you talk a little bit about that, just the journey from making that decision to come back and now a top 5.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  Do you have time?

Q.  You have to ask the translator, actually.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  Well, I know it sounds really philosophic saying, wow, it's only a tennis match, but well, how to start?
I came really early on tour, too early.  I guess I had a lot of pressure on myself because I was a lot compared to fellow Swiss player which is playing doubles here.  So I think I just lost it at a certain point, dealing with all this pressure when you're so young, when your brain is not even enough developed.
I had to rebuild myself in a certain way and also to ‑‑I was injured, first of all, but then I was really asking myself, okay, but what is now my future?  Where would I be really happy?  We only have one life.  So just try to ‑‑if you have the opportunity to choose living, which one would you choose?
Well, I was really, and I am still, passionate about catering, restaurants, hotels.  So I love that kind of side where you give love to people by, I don't know, preparing a great meal or something.  So I was really attracted to that.
So I said, okay, well, I'm just going to do that, and I'm not going to play tennis anymore because I really feel that it's where I want to be.
Well, I did an internship in a five‑star hotel.  I also wanted to do the hotel school of Geneva in Switzerland, they're pretty famous, and it was a preparation internship.
While I loved it, really to say that, but actually, one day I got an e‑mail from the WTA that like I'm on the list to play the French Open.  And it was the first time in my life that I could choose or I want to play or I don't want to play.  I wasn't stuck in the tour, like, okay, playing tournaments, defending points, blah, blah, blah, or how I got to tennis was because of my dad and not in a nice way.
So anyway, so this time it was first time I could choose myself, me, with all my heart and all my body and everything, my mind.
I said, okay, I'm going to go.  I went there.  I lost, but I knew on the way‑‑ like I took my car, like I said to my boss, hey, I'm playing the French Open tomorrow so I cannot work today (smiling).  It was pretty funny, but he said, okay, go.  Tell me if you want to come back.
On the way, I took my car, drove from Lausanne to Paris, it's five hours, I was in my car listening to one song of Massive Attack, Teardrop, and this one will be my favorite, all‑time favorite, because actually I just realized so many things, like really something amazing.
And, well, from that time I called my coach, which is my coach now, but he worked 15 years with Stanislas Wawrinka before.  I said, well, I want to play again, so if you can maybe help me out in a certain way.
So then we started to work.  And it was tough at the beginning, especially when you have like not a lot of money to play anymore and you know that you need to get results to get money and you're like, kind of, you have the knife under the throat and you're like, ehhh.  So it builds you up, all those things.
So, well, this was a quick recap of how it happened, but believe me, it was a long way.  Even this year at the beginning of the year, after the Fed Cup, I went to play a 15,000 in Tallinn for what?  Just to play matches?
And, well, I won it, but still I did three sets against girls ranked 500, and at that certain moment you need to just be humble and say, okay, well, I do it.  I won even if it's three sets.  Well, she played well.  I'm just going to look at the next tournaments and see if I can make, yeah, maybe top 100 in the next few months.
And then slowly and slowly, and, well...
(To translator.) Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry.

Q.  (Through translation.)  Not long ago you had another match with Maria, but at that time you lost.  So what happened during these several months that made the difference?  What was the difference between the two matches?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  In Wimbledon it was the first time I played on a big stadium for four years, so, you know, I just got the pressure on me, everything.  I just couldn't deal with that.  I mean, she's used to playing on big courts.  Me, that was just the first time I was playing for four years in front of 12,000 people.
So I got completely ‑‑my mind got completely, like, like this (crossing index fingers in X).  It was saying, no, no, no.  Just go off the court, because it was too much.
Since then I played on bigger stadiums.  Played in Montreal against Ivanovic.  Still my mind said no.  Then the first time when it started like to be okay, I assumed I'm playing on a big court, now I understand how to deal with the pressure and I think I can do better, it was against Wozniacki in New Haven.  And then a week later I'm playing Venus Williams on Ashe where you have 24,000 people plus all the TVs and night session.
I mean, it's tougher to get more pressure than at that moment, and I dealed really well with that.  I improved all the time slowly but surely.
So I wasn't really ‑‑when I saw the draw and I said, oh, it can be Maria, I was like, fine, because I was on different situations which I can compare to this one before and I all the time learned a little bit.
Yeah.  It happened that this time I could deal with it from the beginning till the end.  So it's a big step forward, and I hope I will keep on doing big steps forward like that.

Q.  (Through translation.)  Do you think today's match maybe like marks a new starting point in your life?  And do you have any plans for your future?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY:  It's not like I won and I'm going to get married or something.  I mean, I'm just going to keep on playing tennis (smiling).
No, well, it's not going to be a new start but it's just a step forward.  I don't know really the limits that I have in this sport, so I'm still trying to find them.  Hopefully they are far away, and then I can learn every day.
Yeah, it's a really nice win, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.  But, you know, it's tour.  There is another day, another match.  So the tournament is not over.  Well, this is the bad part in a certain way that you make something big, but then you have to focus on the next one.  You cannot enjoy it like super, like a lot of time.
So I just hope for the next step that I will play well tomorrow if it's against Caroline or Casey, and if I don't play good, then I will play better in my next tournament in Linz, Luxembourg.  Yeah.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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