Quote machine: 2009 Australian Open, Day 6
Originally published on: 26/02/10 15:16
“My eyes! my innocent eyes!”
Serena Williams will never be the same again after a male streaker ran on court during her doubles match on Friday
So what did Amelie Mauresmo, fresh from defeat at the hands of Victoria Azarenka, make of her opponent’s chances against Serena Williams?
“I don’t know. I’m not in the mood for that.”
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has no complaints about his back injury. In fact…
“Yeah, perfect. My back is perfect. I enjoy it.”
Fernando Verdasco was full of praise for Andy Murray – even before the Scot had secured his fourth round berth:
“He’s a very good player. So complete in all the aspects in the game. He is not the favourite over Nadal or Federer, but, of course, he’s one of them.”
And he swears it wasn’t all a walk in the park against Radek Stepanek:
“The beginning of the match was really tough. If you saw with 4?3 in the first set, it was 49 minutes.
“And then I look again with 6?4, 6?0, 5?0, and it was 1 hour 49.”
Your opponent gets into a protracted argument with the umpire over a line-call. Mind games from Nicolas Almagro perhaps? Not a bit of it, quips Gael Monfils:
“If you want to talk, it’s okay with me. I sit and relax.”
Dudi Sela on his bag-rummaging antics during his match with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga:
“My phone was vibrating. It was on, so I tried to turn it off. I got so many messages and phone calls from Israel. None from the Prime Minister yet, but maybe if I win.”
And Sela tries to explain the lack of faith in defending champion Novak Djokovic:
“Yesterday I saw the match, and I think he didn’t play so well. He changed racquet, and I think he didn’t really get used to it. It’s very difficult. I tried to change racquets two weeks ago, and almost I came with a different racquet here. The last second I really came with my old racquets. I know how it is feel when you don’t trust your racquet.”
Gilles Simon reckons the fans were as lucky as he was that Mario Ancic found the conditions tough today:
“Mario can be really boring when he’s serving good.”
Elena Dementieva reveals her search for the eye of the tiger goes on:
“It’s impossible to be satisfied with the way you’re playing every single day, especially when you’re playing three tournaments in a row. It’s gonna be some bad days and some days of, let’s call, ‘survivor’ days. You know, the most important is just to go through. I’m still enjoying. That’s the key.”
James Blake is loving his recent rebranding:
“I’m going to start my own line within Fila. I’m going to have my own name, my own trademark as a part of the brand. It’s a good fit right now. So I’m excited about that. They’re going to let me also design some lifestyle and casual and golf clothes. Hopefully I’ll be in Fila and then my own line for a long time to come.
I didn’t go to design school like I know [Venus and Serena Williams] did, but I got some ideas. I’m sure the designers that will be in the room will probably laugh at my ideas and tell me they’re just not possible!”
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