Exclusive interview of Igor Andreev for Maria Kirilenko official website.

Igor, what do you think of Maria as tennis player ?
She have very good potential. She’s still young and she wants to go very high. She works very hard to succeed. She have a good technique but she needs to improve physically to be faster and stronger. She have to walk in the right direction. She could have very good results. Sometimes, it’s difficult to play a good tennis in the first round or second round. And then, you feel better. It’s important for her to win this first round to keep confidence.

Do you give her some advices ?
She didn’t listen too much what I say (laughs). Of course, if she asks me something about her tennis, I try to help her. But she have a professional coach who tell her the right things that she have to do.

And Maria, does she give you some advices ?
Maria ? Well, she can’t give me advices (laughs). No seriously, I’m a kind of person who can listen all the advices. It’s interesting to compare the advices between them and with your own point of view. I listen for sure and then, I take my own decision.

Do you have funny tennis moments with Maria ?
She makes some jokes in Russian which are very funny but it’s difficult to explain it in English. (laughs)

Are you proud of Maria ?
Her father and mother have to be proud of her. I’m happy when she feels well and she wins.

Does she need to speak with you after a match ?
When you win or you lose, you need to be alone with yourself. You need to understand by yourself what’s happened. Most of the time, every week you lose a match. So you have to think what’s going wrong. This is a bad match, bad luck or whatever…