– Victoria, please tell us a couple of words on today’s match v. Diana Shnaider. You have already faced before with Diana in Istanbul. It felt like there are some differences between these two matches?
– Yeah, I think there was a lot of difference in the level of my game today. I am really happy that I played the whole match this way. I was really concentrated. And I was mixing a lot the game. And I had a very good tactics from Svetlana Kuznetsova. She was giving me a good tactics. And I am just happy that I could do whatever she was telling me and that everything was working out.

– How did you like this experience of having such legendary captains on your bench?
– For sure, it’s really nice to have these types of coaches in your box, legends I’d even say. Dmitry Tursunov also. He gave also gave me a little bit of tactics before the match. So, both of them gave me really good advice what to do during the match. And I am just glad that everything worked out for me today. And that I brought the win to the team.

– Diana is an upcoming tennis player; she is a new person on Tour. Can you please evaluate the level of her tennis?
– She is amazing, I’d say. Her game is really tricky. She is hitting a lot of winners on a run especially on the forehand side. And of course, she is fighting a lot. And she is thinking of how to do best in the game. She has a bright future.

– Through many years in tennis what does motivate you to keep on going (as tennis routine is a little bit boring, you are doing the same things every day) and what is your tennis dream?
– Usually, we are always joking with my dad when I was really little like 9 or 10 years old, and then when I won the European championship at 14, everybody was wishing me to be top-10 or top-100. I was like ‘No, I wanna be №1’. I always had this thing in me, I compete. And I think it drives me and keeps me going forward. And like you said to do all of these things that we do every day, these routines and everything… I am just this type of person who likes to be a perfectionist and likes to do the things 100%. I think that it helps me in some way but also not every time because usually I am always like not 100% happy when I have to be as I am playing really well.

– And you are still dreaming to reach…
– My goals for the next year are to get into the top-50. I will see from there. I hope I can reach that and I know I can do that.

– Your father, grandfather and a brother were going in for football, your mother was doing athletics. When growing up in such a sports family, did they push you to go in for sports too?
– No, actually they didn’t push me at all for anything. They just asked me in some point if I wanna do school or I want to be a professional tennis player. And I think it was around when I was 14-15. And I think everyone should do that for himself like take this decision. Because you cannot be 50% at school, 50% in tennis. You have to be 100% in what you do and I think it works for every profession. You have to be like that otherwise, it won’t work out in the best way.

– If you wouldn’t become a professional player, what would you chose? Have you ever thought of this?
– Actually no (laughter). I never thought about this, because I am always like I said I am competing. Of course, I have ups and downs, like in every profession, the same thing is in tennis: some tournament you play well, some tournaments you don’t play that great. You just have to pick you up when you lose a couple of tournaments in R1. I think everybody faced that. You just have to continue to do those routines and just wait for your time. And when the time comes, you just need to push forward.

– During this week you took part on kids clinic. When you were little, did you take part in such kinds of activities? And did you notice some gifted young players during the master class?
– I was not that fortunate to have these kids classes but of course when I was 6 years old I started in a group with a couple of kids. And I think it is very important for the kids at the begging to start in a group because if you start individual, I think they can lose their desire very fast. So, I think it has to be fun at the beginning for them. And then when you get a little bit older then you have start to work as an individual. I saw potential in some of the kids. They were quite motivated, so I wish them luck and all the best in the future.

– Yesterday you visited Basta concert. How was it?
– I actually love it. It was a great atmosphere. And actually, it was my first time ever being in a concert. I have never been in my life before. So, I guess it was a very good first time for that type of concert because it was great. I understood some of the words he said how he wrote the songs and everything else that he said. So, I am really positive about the concert.