Player Quotes July 26th
Agnieszka Radwanska“It was hard for me out there today. This was my first match in four weeks, and I was playing on a hard court . The first match is always the tough one and it doesn’t matter who is standing on the other side. You have to fight with yourself and try to stay in the match. This was a good test for me and I’m very happy to have won the match.”
“I started to just focus on the important moments. The match was really close, no matter who was serving. It was just game-by-game. I was trying everything and I think she tried everything. At times, I think I tried to do too much. The goal now is to play better as the tournament continues.”
Dominika Cibulkova
“I did not feel comfortable from the beginning because it was my first match. It’s never easy to play against that type of opponent because I have never seen her before and did not know what to expect. A lefty serve is always troublesome for me because it falls differently and has a different spin. That forced me to wake up a little bit.”
“It wasn’t that I played really aggressive, but I just was able to apply more pressure from the baseline. I was pushing her and she made more mistakes. Every time I needed my serve, it was going well. Today I was the more experienced player on the court.”
“Last year was pretty up and down for me. I had my best result in the semifinals at Roland Garros and after that, I couldn’t play for four months because of a stress fracture injury. So it was really tough for me to come back. I decided to change my coach and we are starting to work on things that will hopefully move me forward.”
Hilary Barte
“Because of the quality of her ball and the consistency of that quality, I would say she is the best player I have played. When you see the girls hit, you are like ‘wow, they are good’. But when you actually get out there and see that ball come at you, it’s like ‘wow, I have a lot of work to do’. Her footwork is unbelievable.”
“I think the big difference was when it got tight in the game, like a 30-all or a deuce, she really bore down and you could tell she was going to play her game. I was going to have to come with my best, and it was just going to be my best against her best. But I felt like I didn’t really bring that same type of intensity to the big points.”
“Before I played, I saw they had a radar gun down there. So I decided if I served the first game, I would just crank them and see how hard it was.”
Ana Ivanovic
“I served well and actually didn’t make many mistakes, so I am happy to see that a few of the things we worked on during the past month came into play today.”
“I think the biggest difference was with my fitness. I really felt like I was getting to every ball and managed to maintain the rallies. Not having to pull the trigger too early kind of put me at ease and I managed to stay strong. I knew she was a tough opponent and hard court is her better surface, so I am happy to have this victory.”
“With her, you have to try and dominate because if she is the one dominating, she becomes a tough opponent. I managed to play really deep so then I could turn my defense into offense, and come in and take approach shots. I still have to be aggressive, just wait for the right ball.”
“I’ve been hitting lots of balls lately and working hard over the last few weeks. I’ve been practicing a lot here and feel really confident and comfortable on these courts. I have good timing on the balls I have been hitting. And the court is actually playing quite fast, which I enjoy.”
Dinara Safina
“In the important moments she played pretty well. I had so many chances but I didn’t use them. It was my first match back from injury, so I am pretty positive and will keep working hard and try to improve day by day.”
“My back feels fine and that is the most important thing for me and I will continue working hard.”
Kimiko Date Krumm
“Since Wimbledon, I had a short a short break and this was my first time playing on hard court since Miami. We were not really sure what would happen. We played against Safina at Roland Garros but that was a different situation. It was on red clay and I had an injury in my calf and she wasn’t in the best condition. I tried to forget everything, but I needed to stay focused. I watched a DVD with my coach last night so I had a good idea on how I needed to play.”
