ANETT KONTAVEIT:”I WOULD GIVE MYSELF A GRADE 4 FOR MY MATCH AGAINST BENCIC”

You said on a court, that you didn’t play the perfect match, because you cannot always play perfect matches. Suppose you are a school teacher.What grade will you give yourself today on a scale of 1-10?

I think different parts of my performance deserve different grades, but I think I played a solid match. The most important thing is that I stayed positive throughout the match whatever the score was and just tried to stick with it. That was the most important thing. May be in my head I will give myself a 4 out of 5, this is our scale of grades in Estonia.

Your opponent Bencic complained of the repercussions of the covid she had, because she had breathing problem, she couldn’t practice at 100%. We hope you managed to avoid covid and if not how did you recover from it?

I haven’t got covid so far, I have been lucky. I have been vaccinated to try to reduce the damage to the minimum if I do contract covid. It is something we have to live with, anyone can get it, but I have been lucky.

You look like a typical good-looking Estonian blonde, there must be glossy Estonian fashion magazines queuing up have you on the cover or Estonian advertisers. If this the case who are your advertising partners in Estonia?

The market in Estonia itself is very small and the stuff I have been doing is more for Lacoste and international companies. Of course, people in Estonia ask me to do some of that stuff, but I haven’t done too many things.

Your next opponent is Yelena Ostapenko, H2H is 2-1, but you lost the last match at the tournament in Eastbourne. Are you ready for the Baltic derby? 

The last time we played she was great, but I think the way I went into that match I wasn’t so positively, so this time I am definitely ready for a tough match. I have seen her games, she was playing very well and I hope it is going to be a good match.

The question is about the first close set which you won over a hard-fought battle, how did that affect the rest of the match?

Indeed, our match was changing throughout the first set – sometimes I led 3/0, then she led 5/3 and in the tie break she had a 6-4 advantage. Therefore, often in the match the initiative changed hands, but in general I am pleased that I was able to win and maintain a positive attitude. This happens in general in tennis, when a stubborn first set predetermines the outcome of the entire match.

You have posted in your social networks, the views of St. Petersburg. Which one did you like most and which one do you want to see life when maybe you come back here again?

In fact, I didn’t have the opportunity to go anywhere. Although I would very much like to visit museums, but there was no such opportunity. Yet it gives me the motivation to come back here again and go around all the most beautiful places in the city.