IRINA-CAMELIA BEGU: “I WAS NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH”

What was your tactic? You have sent long deep balls close to the baseline to force Maria make a mistake?

The tactics today was to mix the high balls, slices, taking the ball early. I didn’t want to give her the same pace at every ball. I think it was a really good match, I’m obviously disappointed to lose, but I know the level was very high. I was fighting till the end. However, sometimes someone has to lose, and today it was me.

You were up 2/0 in the third set? You seemed a little bit tired, and Maria leveled the score to make it 2/2. What happened next?

Well, yeah… I was serving with new balls at 2/0. I think, I lost my chance a little bit, because when serving with new balls you have more opportunities to win some “free points” with the serve. But she was returning the whole match really well, all the returns were in and I was not that aggressive in that game. So, yeah, I lost that opportunity. I started to be a little bit tired in the third set, but it was normal after we played for three hours where every game was very intense. I think, it was the key that I lost that opportunity in the third set at 2/0. But, overall, I cannot complain.

How do you feel about the crowd support? We saw how heavily you were supported. Was it a distractive factor or it helped you to stay motivated to fight?

For sure, it was a really good atmosphere today, there were more people than in the previous days and, obviously, I heard them. I think they also enjoyed the match and it was good to have the support of the people.