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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS WOMENFebruary 21, 2012Fatma Al NabhaniDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MIRZA‑VESNINA/Al Nabhani‑Klepac THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. First time in the main draw. What are your reflections? FATMA AL NABHANI: Well, of course I'm happy that I played main draw. I really thank Salah Tahlek for giving me this opportunity to play in the main draw. Yes, it was my first time, but unfortunately I was not lucky with all the things that happened. But I mean, I really thank him, and hopefully next time it will be better, better luck. (Smiling.) Q. How did you see yourself if you chart your progress from last year to this year? Where do you see you have grown, especially with Laurent coming onto the team? FATMA AL NABHANI: Yes, of course I feel I improved in some certain stuff than the last few years. But, I mean, hopefully it'll get more and more, much better with him. I mean, I just worked couple of month with him, just not too long. But things have been improving, and hopefully ‑‑ this year I'm trying to improve my WTA ranking, so hopefully it will work. Q. What sort of plan do you have to do this? FATMA AL NABHANI: I have to play a lot tournaments to increase my ranking. Last year I didn't play much. According to the injury that I had I was on and off. So, yeah, hopefully this year I'm healthy, I'm much more physically better on the court. So hopefully it's going to be much better. Q. You were very strong in Doha. What's happened yesterday or today? FATMA AL NABHANI: I really don't know. Probably it's the weather. It's a bit windy. I couldn't play well. And also all the things happening, it's not easy to concentrate and just play your game and everything. So I'm really sad and upset that I didn't play very well this year here. I think last few years I played much better than this year. Maybe it's the things that happened and happening around me. It didn't give me a good chance to perform well. And also the weather, it was pretty windy. But that's‑‑ you know, that's tennis. Sometimes you're up; sometimes you're down. Even if I played well in Doha, sometimes next week like you might not play your game. But, I mean, it's there. Hopefully it will get better. Q. How far do you think you are from, say, aspiring for top 100 or 50? FATMA AL NABHANI: It's not far, but of course just to improve very few stuff and experience. It's not far at all, but I just need to get my chance. As soon as you got your chance and reach there, you don't think it's like‑‑ like improve my ranking to play more better tournaments and higher tournaments, I don't think you can come easily down. So it's not far at all. Hopefully‑‑ I promise you ‑‑ hopefully soon it will happen. Q. You are Arabian champion. What's your next step? Are you going in summer for European tour or something like that? FATMA AL NABHANI: Yeah, thank God I won the Arab Olympic gold medal in December last year. That gave me a lot of confidence. At the time I was playing very well. And even also in Doha this year I played a good, not bad second set. I was close but unlucky. That tournament gave me a lot confidence. As I said, from beginning this yeah, I'm trying to improve my WTA ranking and perform better. Q. How do you feel you performed against Shahar? In the first six games it was very... FATMA AL NABHANI: I'm really sorry... THE MODERATOR: She's just played doubles today. This is about doubles. Q. When you talk about improving your WTA ranking, is there any figure you put before for the end of this yeah, any number? FATMA AL NABHANI: I really don't know, you know. It's always hard to expect something. But hopefully at least top 200 or you know, 300 at least. Yeah, it's not something tough at all. When you do good and well in one or two tournaments, you're already there. But I just need to keep up and play a lot of tournaments to improve the ranking. Q. What are the next few tournaments? FATMA AL NABHANI: I'm playing two tournaments by the next two weeks in Florida, two 25s, ITFs. After Florida probably I'm playing in Thailand and Phuket, also two 25s. And then I have the 10,000 circuit that they did in the GCC. Will be Bahrain, Fujairah, and Oman. I have to play them as soon as they‑‑ also those tournaments for me to play in. Q. What parts of your game do you feel you can improve upon at this stage in your career, do you feel? Is there anything specific you're working on? FATMA AL NABHANI: Yes, physically I think I'm much better than the last year, even probably much, much better. I lost a lot of weight since last year. I'm doing well physically. And also playing‑wise on the court it's getting better. But, you know, I mean, maybe it was hard because you don't play these tough matches all the time with the top players. So when you play one time, it's not enough. When you play couple of times it gets better by the time. We are not used to play these matches, so it's hard for us, you know, to perform well from the first time or something. So, yeah, but overall I did improve since the couple of years. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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