ROGERS CUP PRESENTED BY AMERICAN EXPRESS
Date: 2007-08-16

ROGERS CUP PRESENTED BY AMERICAN EXPRESS

August 16, 2007

Tatiana Golovin
TORONTO, ONTARIO
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Just wanted to know if you played -- did you have a tactic after watching your opponent? I noticed some of the running was off, and I noticed a few times you hit shots in the same area just to keep her like she'd go back to the middle. You would hit in the same area. Did you form a tactic or did you just think, I'm just going to play and not think about this?
Tatiana Golovin Definitely I had a tactic going into the match. Because I had played her in the past, and she did give me some trouble before. So I knew how I have to win and how I have to play to beat her.
I think then we warmed up this morning at 9:00 in the morning, and there was absolutely no wind, so we were kind of happy that we were going to be able to strike the ball well. You get out on the court at 11:00, and my dress is blowing everywhere. Like, it was really cool, so you have to adjust. Definitely I think I handled it a lot better than her.
I think she played very well the first four games where it was really tight, and I couldn't really stick to it. I was there, and I was showing her that I was there.
And I think she kind of -- I don't know what happened, she was making a lot of mistakes, missing a lot of balls. I don't know if it was the wind or me putting a lot of pressure. But I definitely I had a strategy going in, and I was very aggressive.

Question Was the wind really bad in the first serve?
Tatiana Golovin You could see she was making double faults and missing a lot of balls and that's probably because of the wind. And I think I know my timing was a lot better than hers today.
Right straight from the beginning I knew I was playing well. Though she worried me in the first games because she was playing extremely well. Even Mats was talking to me, and he said, I didn't think you were going to be able to make it that fast because of the way she was playing in the beginning.

Question Does this wind kind of like erase in your mind the defeat in Italy for you? Is it kind of like it helps you out in your psyche somehow?
Tatiana Golovin I don't know. I think - I guess personally, yeah, it means I can beat Schiavone, but I think overall it's still a very big disappointment what happened in Italy. Even if I did beat her afterwards. You just can't compare, it's two different situations.

Question Sure. You couldn't possibly have thought it would be this easy though to be here, and that must be really good for your confidence?
Tatiana Golovin You know, I mean I've played her, I think, three times. I lost to her the first time. And then I beat her 1-0. And then I lost to her again. And I think there is just, it was me playing two different games.
So I knew today if I wanted to win, it was either going to be easy or it was going to be really tough. And I was probably going to end up losing. Because I know in the third set she's probably much stronger than me. So I had to go out there and hit the balls and put pressure on her right from the start.

Question Could you compare the environments to being in Italy with the fans and being here? Do you think there was any comparison at all to make?
Tatiana Golovin If anything, I think there's probably a little bit more people rooting for me here than for her. Where over there there's like 5,000 people screaming every time I miss a first serve. So there's totally no comparison. And I'm glad for that, thank you that they're not like that here.

Question Is there anyone you would like to particularly face in the finals or are you just going to get --
Tatiana Golovin Finals (laughing)?

Question Okay, I'm assuming. Hypothetically. Did you have, going into this, were you thinking I'd really like to play this person or do you take it day by day?
Tatiana Golovin I don't think you ever want to play anybody good in a tournament if you do want to go well. But definitely when I look at the draw I said Schiavone and Dementieva are going to be my first half opponents. And definitely if Kuznetsova wins, that's going to be very, very tough.
And that's good matches I need to do before the US Open because that's going to show where my level is and how I can play and how I should play.

Question I read on the WTA website, I don't know if this is still true, are you still currently without a coach?
Tatiana Golovin I just started with Mats Wilander this week.