TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 1st of June 2014. M. Sharapova d. S. Stosur 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. An interview with Maria Sharapova
Q. What a comeback. How did you manage to get through? In the second you had the break and you lost it and you come back.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I thought Sam played a really good first set. With all that said, I had five break points and I didn’t convert one of them.
Against a player that’s a very good server that uses her serve as a weapon to set up points, you don’t take advantage of those particular moments and she gains a lot of confidence from that and swings and keeps serving well.
So I didn’t feel like I was really putting any pressure on that. Maybe not taking enough chances and not really going for it in those particular moments, which gave her the opportunity to keep doing that and playing with confidence.
Yeah, it was unfortunate that I gave that break back in the second set, because I thought I had a good start. But overall, I’m happy with the way I finished. I think that’s, you know, the most important thing for me.
Q. A lot of emotion there in the third set. At the end you were running through that. What was that all about? For a fourth round match, seemed like a lot of energy.
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Why wouldn’t there be? I’m in a Grand Slam fourth round. I lost in the fourth round in Australian Open. I lost the first set playing an opponent that’s played a great tournament so far.
There is no reason why I should be walking around with my head down.
Q. Do you think you’re a merciless competitor?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I’m not sure. I love competing. That’s one of the best parts of the sport. Gives me the greatest pleasure, and I don’t think anything else in life can give me that. I’m using that to my advantage while I can.
Q. You would have played Serena in this round. You get Muguruza next. You said last press conference you thought it was fair to be considered the favorite at this point. How do you see the rest of the tournament going for you?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don’t want to talk about after that because I’m not in that position yet. I just finished my fourth round just an hour ago, and then the next one I have is an opponent that’s had, you know, one of her best slam runs so far and someone that we have heard about for a couple of years, up and coming.
This is certainly her breakthrough tournament, and she’s playing with all the confidence. That’s going to be a challenge for me. But that’s what I love about this game.
Q. Novak was here right before you, he was asked about your friendship. He said there were two Marias, the one on the court and the one off the court. Maybe people don’t realize how you’re different, how different you are off court. Do you feel like this, that there are two Marias? It’s a conscious effort to compartmentalize like this?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I treat my career and my work as a very serious profession, and I know that what has got me my success is the fact that I’m a big competitor and that I don’t want to give anyone a chance. I was never here from day one to make friendships. This is a battlefield for me, and I want to win.
I think you see that passion when I’m on the court. That’s my job. That’s how I feel. I try to tough it out. I try to grind it out, whatever it takes. Sometimes it’s not very pretty, but at the end of the day, if I get the job done, I’m happy.
When I’m away from the courts it’s a very different story, even though I’m very competitive and I don’t like to lose in many things. Yeah, I’m certainly not like that as I am on the court.
Q. Your relationship with the clay has evolved over the years. Champion, finalist, now quarterfinalist, maybe more. How would you describe that relationship now?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: My relationship started out slow. It was very ugly in the beginning. It was a big learning process for me, and I took it upon myself to get better, to physically improve, because I figured I’d have no chance if I ever wanted to achieve something on this.
I didn’t want to be a player like I saw some examples of players just coming here, and if they won a first round or if they saw a name in the first round and it said Spain or Argentina next to that name, they knew they didn’t have a chance.
I didn’t want to be that player. I knew that Wimbledon was my goal always, and it was a tournament I always looked forward to. But when I was at the French Open I was there to play the French Open.
With that said, I needed to do a lot of things to improve, and I think little by little I tried to make that transition.
