Wimbledon 2009: Amelie Mauresmo Interview transcript (June 27)

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Amelie Mauresmo interview transcript, Wimbledon 2009 on June 27, 2009 following her third round victory over Flavia Pennetta of Italy7-5, 6-3. The 2006 champion is slated to meet top seed Dinara Safina of Russia in the next round.

Q. Are you going to surprise us all and do brilliantly next week?

AMÉLIE MAURESMO: I hope. I hope I will. It’s as usual. For sure every match is gonna be difficult and tougher and tougher as the tournament goes on.

I’ve seen today already that it was much harder than the first couple matches I had to play. I’m expecting another good one and tough one on Monday.

But we’ll see. I’m excited. I’m ready for that. Hopefully it will go my way, but we’ll see.

Q. For the British readers who don’t follow you week in and week out, since you won here, you’ve had some dips in your form. Do you feel you’re at a much happier place again now?

AMÉLIE MAURESMO: Well, definitely compared to the last two years that I had, not even talking about here in Wimbledon this week, but also throughout the last few months that I had, it’s been much better, and I was enjoying myself a lot more than the last couple years.

So that was the goal actually. To keep playing for me was really a matter of enjoying myself on the court and being able to live some other great moments of emotion on the court, which I had already a few times this year. Hopefully I’ll have some more.

Q. Maybe an easy match compared to the battle in Fed Cup?

AMÉLIE MAURESMO: Well, it was tight. It was still a tight match. We’ve seen the first set was ?? nobody wanted to let it go. Struggling a little bit on the serve time sometimes, but still holding, even though I had a few breakpoints against me.

And she was on her side, except at 2?1, I think, otherwise she was keeping her serve pretty well. But it was a good fight. It was not going to three sets, but definitely a tough one and a close one.

Q. What did you expect from her today? You know her very well.

AMÉLIE MAURESMO: Well, basically what happened, being tough from the baseline, returning pretty good. Serve maybe I was expecting some ups and downs throughout the match, which she had only couple times. But it helped me to break her twice in the important moments.

We know each other pretty well now. No big surprise today.

Q. Amélie, there’s a lot of very young players left in the last 16. Oudin, Wozniacki, Azarenka; Lisicki just beat Kuznetsova. What advice would you give them if and when they come up against the Williamses here?

AMÉLIE MAURESMO: It’s tough. You know, you have to make your own experience. It’s always nice to hear what other people have to say, but basically you are building your own career and your own experience, and nothing can really replace this. I guess stick to the plan and be ready physically and tactically for whatever things that can happen.

But mentally you just learn from playing matches, and nothing can really replace that.

via www.wimbledon.org website