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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS


February 18, 2014


Angelique Kerber


DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

A. IVANOVIC/A. Kerber
3‑6, 6‑3, 7‑6


THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  Must be very disappointing to be so close to winning that match.
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  Yeah, I mean, I think it was a crazy match.  In the end, Ana won, and of course I'm disappointed, but, you know, that's tennis.

Q.  You played a good match, though.  You must be pleased with that.
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  Yes, I think we both played a good match.  It was a match on the high level and just one of us can win, and that's Ana today.
But I think I played a good match.  I'm looking forward for the next one, then.

Q.  Is it difficult, having played in the Doha final Sunday, and 48 hours later you are playing a really good player?  Normally these early matches are a little bit easier.  Is that difficult to adjust?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  I don't know if it's difficult.  Of course I had just one day to recover, that was difficult for me, because, yeah, it was not too long time, but, yeah, I mean, this draw is tough and doesn't matter against who you play against here first round.  You need to be ready.
I was trying everything, and, yeah, at the end she won the last point.

Q.  You played a good match against a very good player.  Was there anything you could have done differently, do you think?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  I think this match just decide like one, two points, and the luck was more on her side today, and I think that's it.

Q.  What are your targets for this year?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  You know, I would like to play like a consistent year, of course, to be in the top 10, and improve my tennis.  I think I'm working hard to improve my tennis, to play more aggressive, and also I think my serve is much better than it was last year.
So I think everything is going in the right way.

Q.  Is there anything about being a top player that surprised you over the last year or so?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  No.  I think right now I'm one of the top players for two years, and I think it's a good feeling for me.  I feel good like to be a top‑10 player.

Q.  Do you feel you should get more recognition for being a top player?  You're very kind of low profile.
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  I don't know.  I think that's me, and, you know, that's me, like I am, and I love playing tennis like I do this.  The things outside the tennis, I try my best, and I think for me it's good like this.

Q.  German players in the last few years, I guess, have perhaps had to operate with expectations based on past great players.  Women players and men players have been compared with Graf and Becker and so on.  Has that in any way affected you in the kind of profile that you're getting?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  Yeah, I mean, of course it's tough, because Steffi and Boris, they are the biggest tennis players in Germany and it's tough to compete with them.
But I'm not thinking like this, you know.  I'm not competing with Steffi or with Boris, because I think everybody is going her own way.  They won everything you can win, so it's for sure difficult to make the same like they did.
But I think I would like to do everything I could in my career, so then when I stop it, can say like, you know, I give everything and I work hard.  Then I can say for myself, That was a good career for me.
So I'm not competing with them.

Q.  Do you know if the German public has forgotten the past and is now trying to look to the future more?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  I think they do it right now more and more, because now we have more German players, and right now we are in the semis with the Fed Cup, and I think now they start again to look more on tennis, yeah.

Q.  Why do you think there was kind of a lull after Steffi, Anke, and for 10 years there was nobody and suddenly there are five or six very, very good German players.
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  That's tough.  I don't know why there was such a long break, I don't know, but I know that we are right now I think ready for that, because we know each other, and we are the same age and we are coming and growing up together.
Everybody is going her own way.  We are practicing hard.  And I think right now we are supporting us so when one player is playing and beating the top players, you know actually you can do the same, because you beat her too, so, you know, that's a group right now in Germany with us, and we are all together I think strong and pushing us together.

Q.  Do you the get the feeling perhaps you're even stronger than the last group?  Apart from Steffi and Anke there was Porwik, Singer, Bunge, Pfaff, plenty of players.  Do you think you're actually a stronger group now?
ANGELIQUE KERBER:  I think we are a stronger group now, yes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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