home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

MERCURY INSURANCE OPEN


July 19, 2012


Dominika Cibulkova


CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA

D. CIBULKOVA/M. Erakovic
6‑2, 6‑4


THE MODERATOR:  Questions.

Q.  Pretty good form today, huh?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, especially first set I was playing well and relaxed.  In second set I started to make it again for myself a little bit tougher than it should be.
I was really happy to close it in 6‑4 in the second set, because after it could get little bit more dangerous for me if it would be 5‑All.
Yeah, it was pretty good today.

Q.  So you got a little more tight in the second set?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  It's not that tight, but I always get more like‑‑ I always get when I do some mistake then I get a little bit nervous about it, you know, how I could do mistake.
Then I always complain to myself.  I'm too negative, yeah.

Q.  One mistake or two mistake?  Off one mistake you'll get upset with yourself?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, even I was 40‑Love up in the first set ‑‑ in second set, and then I did a double fault and I was like, What are you doing?  I get maybe too tight on myself.

Q.  Even though you played enough matches where you know you shouldn't get that way?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, but sometimes it's easy to say, but then when you're in the match, you know ‑‑ that's what I'm working on, you know.  I think this is the thing what keeps me from top 10, the behaving on the court.

Q.  Because you want to be perfect?  Even though you know you can't be perfect.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, exactly.  I want to be perfect.  When I do some mistake then I turn into the negative person and I'm like, This could cost me the match and the set.  I don't think the right way.

Q.  Is that what happened against Cirstea last week?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, exactly it happened.  I was set and it was 2‑All and then I was playing much better than her, but she was better serving.  In the rallies I was better.
And then she broke me on 4‑2 and I lost it completely.  I was like, Oh, now it's 4‑2 and I lost.  Yeah, I was too down and so negative, so this is what I need to work on.

Q.  And then there were all the crazy things with the challenges with her, right?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, I think it was something wrong with the challenge, I have to say, because it was really crazy.  I don't think the chair umpires can make seven mistakes like this.

Q.  Seven?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, it was very strange.

Q.  And so did that distract you?  Because the third set too you weren't really in there.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  No, yeah, that's what‑‑ in the third set I was not there.  I was still in the second set when I lost that game on 4‑2.
I was like all the time in that moment.  I was just not focus on my third set.  You know, it was just going so fast.  After I lose really fast.  It goes really out of my hands.

Q.  So today at the end of the set, were you able to calm yourself?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, exactly.  It was good that my coach called me on the court‑‑ I called him on the court and he was like, Relax.  Don't complain after every ball you miss.  It's normal you miss.  Everybody miss.  It's nothing bad.  I was like, Okay, okay.  Then it was 15‑Love, 30‑Love, 40‑Love, and I was like, Okay, whatever, I miss.
Then I fight back the game and I won it, so it was really important for me that I won that game.

Q.  I know you've probably been asked this a lot of time about the Olympics, but do you know that Slovakia has never won a medal in tennis?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  No.  We won gold medal.

Q.  You did?  When?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  In Seoul, Miroslav Mecir.

Q.  That's right, but it was only experimental then, no?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  What do you mean experimental?

Q.  That they hadn't decided that it was really...
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  I think so, but, you know...

Q.  It still counts?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yes, of course, in Slovakia.  You have a gold medal and nobody is asking him that ‑‑ I think not even half of the Slovakia knows that he was in finals of US Open or finals of other Grand Slam or playing, but they know that he's a gold medal.
So I didn't even know it was experimentation, but after you said that I remember there was something.

Q.  Now I'm thinking maybe I'm wrong.  Graf won in '88 when she won all her Grand Slams and the Olympics, and that is considered a record.  Maybe I am wrong.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  I think it was '88.  I think it was year before I was born.  I'm '89 and it was '88, so...

Q.  So you probably never saw any video?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  No.  No, I didn't.  I just know that he won.  I think it was serving from down, that he was like, I don't know, something with his back.

Q.  So it's a special thing for you?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah.  Of course Olympics is something different, but if they ask me also at home, the press, if the Olympics, if I'm proud that I represent Slovakia.  But it's not the highlight of the year for me.
You know, it's something‑‑ it's just the next tournament for me that I take.  I'm a little bit upset about the surface we play now on, because I got used to hardcourt and I have to go back to the grass and back to the hard court.
So I'm not really happy about that.

Q.  So that's not a Grand Slam for you, not as important?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Of course it's important.  It's something else.  But Grand Slam is something different for me.  Grand Slam is the most ‑‑  the biggest for me.

Q.  Because it maybe means more to the players in tennis?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, I would say that.  And also in Slovakia they put the Olympics, like it's for the other athletes that they are not so famous back home or they do other sports that they make gold medals, like kayaking.

Q.  I saw canoeing you have 13 medals.  How did Slovakia get so good in canoeing?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, yeah.  I don't know.  I don't know.  I always say we are only few‑‑ we are the only country or few country that do this sport.

Q.  Yeah.  They're good.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah, so they are good in this area.  Yeah, for these people Olympics are really important for them.  I don't want to underestimate Olympic Games, but for me it's more Grand Slam.

Q.  So when you go it's not going to be the highlight of your life?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  No, the Wimbledon this year was not the best for me.  I lost first round to Zakopalova, and so now I have maybe another time to make up for it.  So this is the other reason why I'm like really pumped for it.

Q.  Because you want to get back to the grass and avenge that?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  Yeah.

Q.  But she's good.  She almost beat Maria at Roland Garros.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  You yeah, she is one of the players, if you play her you never know what to expect.  Sometimes she can ‑‑ she's like this, up and down, up and down.  She's hitting like the balls like crazy.
I was just waiting in the match for one turning point that she goes really down, but it didn't happen.  So it was unlucky.

Q.  Have you played Urszula Radwanska?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  I think really long time ago in L.A.  I think she beat me, but it was like five years ago.

Q.  2009.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  2009, so three years ago.  But now I'm...

Q.  When you were juniors?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  No, no, no.  I think it was already the Home Depot...

Q.  You played her in juniors also?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  I don't know.  I don't remember.  Yes, I played her once in the Wimbledon.  I beat her.  Did you see it?

Q.  She won in 2007, Aga won junior Wimbledon.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA:  I think I beat her second round at the Wimbledon.  Second round, but women's, I think.  Maybe.  Maybe.
Yeah, but now I'm a little bit different player and different style, my tennis.  Now it's going to work.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297