Excerpts from the post-match press conference of Tatjana Maria after beating India No. 1 Ankita Raina in Round 1 of the Chennai Open WTA 250 tournament 6-0, 6-1. Indian Tennis Daily Member Srividya was part of the Q&A session.
On beating the home favourite Ankita Raina
“I am happy, of course, that I could win this match in two sets because I know it was not an easy first round to play an Indian girl, No. 1 of India and I knew that everyone will be behind her. Well, it’s completely normal and so I was really concentrating on my game to make her play as many balls as possible and I think it worked out pretty well. And I am happy with my performance.”
Defensive strategies of the match
I mean it was a little bit my tactic, because I knew how she was playing and I knew that my slice, maybe, could disturb her a little bit. So, it was a little bit of a plan to play more slices than normal. But in general, yeah, I’m happy to win my first from here. It is not easy conditions here, we are sweating a lot. So, I am happy to win this match.
On moving forward with the tournament
Actually, I am hoping we can stay really long here, because we really like it and, I mean, my family and I are really happy to be in India for the first time. So, I think, I go match by match, but I hope we stay for long.
On her slicing her way to wins
My slice in general is my game. I play a little different game than the others. That sometimes helps of course but at the end i didn’t have to change a lot because slice is a part of my game and it worked out pretty well
Changing from a two-handed backhand to a one-handed backhand
I changed when I was pregnant with Charlotte, my bigger girl. It was not an easy change because I played a lot of slices even before. And my husband, who is at the same time my coach, told me he would like to change my backhand to a one-hand backhand and I trust him 100%. And I’m really happy that I did, because it feels now like I never played something else. So for me it was a really important step. I’m happy that my husband did it.
Thoughts on travelling on the circuit with two kids
For the moment, I feel pretty good. We like to travel around the world. Charlotte, she is doing online school in Florida. So we are doing school actually here also and it works out pretty well. I mean, it’s a great program and I feel good on the tennis court. I am happy, I feel fit. And as long as we are happy like a family travelling around the world, we’re going to keep going.
