Maria Sharapova: At tournaments like Rome you can prepare for Roland Garros

Maria Sharapova has given an inteview to the official website of the WTA, having spoken about the ongoing women’s tournament in Rome, the city itself, and her own preparations to Roland Garros.

How are you enjoying Rome?

I’m enjoying the clay courts very much cause it’s basically all I’ve seen for the last three days since I’ve been here. I’ve has just a few nice dinners actually, at some trattorias and pizzerias, getting flavor of the Roman food.

Do you get much of a chance to see the city when you come here or is it really just all tennis, tennis, tennis?

There are times when you do find yourself having hours, it’s usually when you lose because then you have like an afternoon before your flight. No, previous year I’ve been able to get myself around the city and see the Vatican. My goal is the Colosseum cause I haven’t been there yet. It’s a stadium that I think is quite nice to be a part of and see.

The clay court season is going towards the French Open. How do you change your game when you get onto the clay court?

I think there are so many things that you learn about your own game by playing on clay: strategically, the way you build points, the way you execute points. It really gives you a chance to form points and think more, because you have more time on clay, you really have more time to think if you want to hit that angle or down line. Sometimes it’s not good for players cause they like everything to be fast, but I feel like I really learn and it helps me a lot into the grass court season.

It feels like you’ve picked up the momentum in last weeks and months. What are you doing specifically to push your game in the right direction?

My goal is to keep going forward and to win as many matches as I can cause it will help my game, bring my confidence into it, allow me to play more naturally, more instinctwise. That’s something I’ve been working over the last few weeks.

You’ve got Roland Garros coming up. Do you look ahead like it is Roland Garros on your mind at the moment or is it all about Rome at the moment?

It depends. I always have a little bit of a different mindset with each tournament, but I feel like I am going to be working through this tournament. At the Grand Slams you may play the match and take a little more time off to get ready for your next one, while at a tournament like this, where you are getting ready for Roland Garros, you may finish the match and you work a little bit more. You go out on the practice court, you work on a few more things if it wasn’t a very long match, take a longer run, do some fitness. Just to keep building and adding things.

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