Anastasiya Yakimova Interview After Defeat

Written by: on 6th February 2012
US Open 2011
Anastasiya Yakimova Interview After Defeat

Anastasiya Yakimova from Belarus hits a return to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their second round match on the third day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 31 August 2011. The US Open runs through 11 September 2011. EPA/JASON SZENES  |

Q. You looked a lot more confident and

ready out there today than you did yesterday.

First set you were playing extremely well. How

much of that was having more time to prepare

for today than yesterday?

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: Yeah, it was a

big difference. I knew I would probably play

Serena. It’s always one of the toughest opponents

you can get.

I was actually just trying to put in the most

effort I could. It was the last match. If I would lose,

it’s over. If I win, we could still stay in the tie.

Yeah, I was trying to prepare mentally

better than yesterday.

Q. When she was angry and smashing

racquets, how much confidence did that give

you?

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: I actually didn’t

see it that she broke the racquets. Yeah, you try to

be concentrated with yourself, with your things, not

paying attention too much to what she is doing.

Of course, it’s giving you a bit of a boost,

confirmation that you’re doing the right thing. You

just have to keep doing the same thing.

Q. You were playing well, good

defense. What did Serena start doing that

made things much more difficult for you?

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: I think she

became more calm. I think she said to herself just

to relax and take it step by step, point by point.

When she gets concentrated, doing the things well,

you know, it’s very difficult to keep the level

because she’s really a good player.

She has a powerful, good serve. She

changed that a lot in the second and third set. She

was really serving well. It was putting a lot of

pressure on me.

I think she didn’t change the way she

played, but she became a little bit more consistent

and stable and more powerful with everything she

was doing.

Q. How disappointing is it not to have

Victoria playing this weekend?

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: I mean, it’s

always disappointment. But we have to try to do

our best from what we have for the day.

I can only answer for my things and for

what I’m doing. So I’m trying to do the best I can.

Everyone in our team is trying to do the same. So

obviously it’s a big loss for us that she couldn’t

play. But if she’s injured, yeah, it’s tough. It can

happen to everyone, so… That’s life.

Q. Any loss is a tough loss to take. Are

there any positives you take home from a

match like this?

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: Yeah, definitely.

That was the first Fed Cup tie for me since 2007, I

believe. I have never played in a World Group as

well. I’ve never played Serena Williams. I was

really looking forward for this match. I knew before

I was going on court that, well, I would just try to

give my best and try to enjoy it. So it was a really

good experience for me. I could keep up the level

with her, even if she was starting to play better, still

a lot of good points.

Yeah, I’m going back home positive. I

happy with the performance.

Q. The other day you talked about the

difficulty with the lights. On your serve you

had some double-faults today. Can you talk

about the difficulty with that.

ANASTASIA YAKIMOVA: Yeah, I’m not

going to make excuses or something for that. My

serve wasn’t really working well today. I don’t say

it was the reason or whatever, it just didn’t work out

that good today.








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