 |
| 09/05/2009 19:19 |
| SAFINA: 'I'M ENJOYING THE CHALLENGE, PROVING THAT I AM BEST' |
|
|
Having cruised to victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 in the final, world No1 Dinara Safina was relishing the prospect of continuing a successful clay court season.
“Yesterday's match really helped me to push myself to play the best,” said Safina of her epic three-hour, three-set win over Venus Williams. “I played one of my best matches. Today I had many more chances to be even more aggressive. I have to be much more dominant, because she had very many points (where all she had to do was) finish them and she was missing by a little bit, so it could have gone either way. So next time - even when somebody's off, I have not to even give them a chance to come into the match. Today she was making way more unforced errors than she usually does. I also played maybe a little bit more - I was trying to get her off the baseline, because she feels very confident on the baseline. But when she had some chances she was really missing today a lot.”
“I'm feeling great, it gives you lots of confidence, especially as the clay court season has started and (I have) one final (in Stuttgart, where she lost to Kuznetsova) and one title. It could not be better. Now I’m going Madrid today and just going to continue playing the same way and keep on going one match at a time.”
“Mentally it was a little bit tougher (against) Venus because I had never beaten her,” said Safina, comparing her semi-final battle with the final. “I was up 3 1 in the third set, then 4 3 break, and it was tougher to finish the match. Against Kuzy today, I had in my head that I had lost three finals this year. I was like ‘I don't want to have this that I'm losing finals’. I'm really happy that I could win the final today. I was disappointed that last week I lost in the final and that I didn't play my best. I'm happy that I broke this and I'm back on schedule, on the main list to go to the Masters.”
Rome represents Safina’s first title since taking over No1 spot in the WTA ranking, and she realises that this will heap more pressure on her shoulders. “When they step on the court they have nothing to lose,” she said of her opponents. “The same happened to me last year - whenever I was playing somebody No1, you just go out there and you swing. I went to play (Justine) Henin last year and I didn't care. I was swinging the ball and everything was landing in. The same is happening with them - they have nothing to lose. But this is a nice challenge, and I'm enjoying this challenge, to prove that I am better than them.” |
|
|