Just focusing on my game

Greetings to my Chinese fans. I was excited to get the win against Aga (Agnieszka Radwanska) on Thursday. She is such a great player. But I played very well from the first point and kept up the momentum till the end.

You know, I suffered a terrible loss to Serena (Williams) two days ago. The good thing is that I put that in perspective and got my confidence back. And then I had a pretty good practice and got some rest.

Serena also beat Petra (Kvitova), so it is going to be win-or-bust for Petra and I. It will definitely be a tough match. But I am not putting any pressure on myself, which would make no sense, right? I will just go out and try to play like I did against Aga, enjoy the match and stay focused at the same time.

I believe that if I do all of those things I always have a decent chance of winning.

In fact, making the Championships here is already a huge success for me. I have capped off the season with a strong run over the past few months, including winning my first title of the year at the Linz Open in Austria this month. It was the biggest moment for me and thanks to that I was able to seal the last berth for Istanbul.

It is my second consecutive year playing in the Championships in this city and I have great memories from the first time. The fans always show up and cheer for the players. Tennis is certainly getting more and more popular here.

I know I am the only top 10 player yet to reach a Grand Slam final. No doubt it is one of my goals next year. But I won't spend much time day dreaming about winning a Grand Slam. You have to put in a lot of work for the ultimate glory. So I will just focus on ratcheting up my game and being more consistent. There is much room for improvement, especially my serves.

(China Daily 10/26/2013 page15)