Periodically during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, FOXSports.com will highlight blog-style interviews with some of the WTA's premier players, as told to Matt Cronin. Keep checking back for the latest entries.
March 16 — Ivan Ljubicic
ATP player Ivan Ljubicic stops by to discuss Roger and Rafa's dominance, the demanding tennis schedule, traveling with his new son and much more.
The people on tour are different than they were 15 years ago. You see more players doing so much more fitness. I remember coming into the locker room 10-15 years ago and guys would be talking about other sports and now if you want to survive you have to be focused 100 percent. That's what Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal have done for our sport as they are asking 100 percent out of all of us. If you are not totally committed, you can't even play with them, and I'm not even talking about beating them, I'm talking about how ridiculous you would look out there if you are not playing your best and totally there mentally because you can't even compete.
Since I started playing pro in 1997, the game has become more physical, guys are faster, they are hitting harder and there are no weaknesses from the top players. When I was coming up I'd play a Marc Rosset or Yevgeny Kafelnikov and they would always have a weakness and when you are in trouble, you could go there and save yourself. You could play with anyone even if they are among the best. Now with the young guys, with Juan Martin Del Potro, Novak Djokovic or Marin Cilic, you name them, they are all so complete. You have to be better than them.
It's so physical and it's unfortunate that we see the amount of retirements more and more. Our sport hasn't adapted to the amount of injures you see. Instead of playing less we have to play more and I don't see positive changes coming. Maybe the guys will see that the only way to do it is not to play 20 tournaments or more and only play mandatory events, otherwise you will really struggle physically.
The surface doesn't matter because every court is slow now. There are two ways of fighting it: shortening the matches with another scoring system or giving players less mandatory events, from 18 like it is now to what it used to be, 14, which gives us more choice and the chance to play when we are fit instead of when we are not. But it's brutal.
Guys like Federer are back on tour here at Indian Wells for the first time since Australia, but he can afford to do it because he's winning the big ones. The rest of the guys have to play Rotterdam, Dubai, Davis Cup and then come here and you are already tired. Then we go to Miami and after that it's already the clay court season. It goes on and on.
Roger chooses not to play those other events because he wants to play until the age of 35. If he plays the Marseilles or Rotterdams then he would probably have to quit at the age of 30. There's a certain amount of tournaments you are going to play in your career and now it's up to you as to how you will schedule them. You can see with Andre Agassi, who was very careful with how much he played and he managed to play until he was 35. Goran Ivanisevic, who I know really well, he played a lot and he was burned out by the time he was 31. When you are 25 you feel like nothing can hurt you and then you are 28 or 29 and you recover slower and today's pain becomes a one-week pain.
Roger is the favorite in every Slam he plays except at Roland Garros and he's always at the top of his game at the Grand Slams because he makes sure that he's healthy for them. Nadal is always the favorite for Roland Garros. You can still have Djokovic winning the 2008 Australian or Del Potro winning the 2009 U.S. Open here and there, but Federer and Nadal are always the favorites.
It's hard to say the other guys haven't been able to catch them, If it was an easy answer the rest would have caught up! Roger is simply the best of all time and Rafa is a lefty who is the best clay courter of all time. It's not like the others aren't trying to catch up. Look at Andy Murray, he's trying hard but when it comes to big matches like the Australian Open final it comes down to experience and Roger has won 15 Slams and Andy hasn't won any. That's where Roger feels comfortable and Murray feels the pressure.
The numbers don't lie with my younger countryman, Marin Cilic. He's a very solid top 10 player and needs to be more consistent on slower surfaces. But he reached the semis of the Australian Open and already won two tournaments this year. Things will happen for him. He's a tall guy and it usually takes the tall guys longer to get the top of their game, but he's only 21 and he'll contend to win majors in the future.
Some of the Serbians are complaining that they don't want to play the Davis Cup tie in Split, Croatia. That's just a bad call from the Serbians. People in Split will be just as fair as they would be in Zagreb. Now what's going to happen is the crowd is going to be even louder. I understand that it's big, but all the players on tour are friends. We have no rivalries where we hate each other or special feelings because someone comes from another country. They will probably feel it from the crowd, but I hope it stays on the court. They are not going to be in any danger. There are probably going to be a couple of people screaming and shouting to distract the players but you have this in Davis Cup anyway. These guys have been coming to Croatia for years. Novak Djokovic played Umag for many years, Victor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic have played in Croatia, Nenad Zimonjic was on my boat last year. They are comfortable in Croatia.
There is no need for me on the Davis Cup team anymore with Cilic, Ivo Karlovic and Mario Ancic now back on the team. I'm done, but if we have two players injured, of course I'll jump in because I don't want to let the team down.
The first couple months of traveling with my now 16-month-old so Leonardo was new but he sleeps 13 hours at night and one hour in the day now and makes it easy. He's a good baby. When I need sleep I do and we always take two hotel rooms. When I need to take my time to rest I do because without it, you can't play at this level. Having my family around makes it easier mentally, because with every week there is something new with Leonardo and I want him around. When you come back after a match and get to play with him, everything else is unimportant.
I'll turn 31 in two days. I'm going to take it year by year. Once I can't be competitive with the top guys anymore, then there's no fun left. I don't want to travel the world losing in the first or second rounds. At the moment, I'm feeling good. I'm ranked No. 25 and I'm playing well. I'm traveling with more people so my expenses are higher and I'm not making as much as I did two or three years ago, but this what I love to do. If it takes me traveling with 5-6 people to stay competitive, that's what I'm going to do.
March 12 — Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the top seed at the BNP Paribas Open and two-time Grand Slam champion, blogs for FOXSports.com about her feud with Russian Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev and the grind of the tour.
I'm different, and I like to analyze a lot. I could have done much better sometimes, but I take a different way to my goals, not the straight way to my best results. If it happens one way, then it's meant to be. Sometimes, I don't have the best days, most of the days actually, and my tennis suffers.
I love tennis, and when I went to Spain to train at 14-15, I felt great, so after two days of not playing, I really needed to go play. Now, when I take five days, I'm more than happy to rest and then I want to go and play again.
At my age (24), I need more breaks. If I was to take six months off and start again, it would be a huge risk. Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters benefited from their time off, but they are champions and who knows what it would do for me? For me, it's very hard to start again after a long break, and then I regret it. When the season starts, I can have ups and downs, but I'm rolling. I'm going somewhere.
You don't know if you take the long break whether you will want to come back. There was Martina Hingis, and then Anastasia Myskina (who has yet to come back). I enjoy life in Moscow, it's great, but I don't think I could be there all the time. But I would love to travel less.
I feel like I'm playing well, but I haven't been playing enough matches, and that frustrates me. It's difficult to schedule because you think that normally you should win matches and then you don't.
I decided to play Fed Cup at the last minute against Serbia, and it was a huge thing. I had some issues with the captain (Shamil Tarpischev) before the tie, but in the end, we got along. We got the victory, and it was great and because I love to play for my country and I love the team spirit.
I had big issues with the captain, and personally it was very tough. I was very surprised that he was egotistical when I said that I wasn't going to play.
We never communicate. If you need something, you ask him or he never communicates, only to call you and ask you to play Fed Cup. That's it. I told him you can't say that in the press. Tell me why you did it. His argument didn't convince of anything. It's between us.
I just wanted to be respected, and that's all I ask from people. I never walked around and said I was star. He was mad at me because I didn't go to the annual Russian tennis evening, but I had my reasons not to go; it's not because I didn't want to go. I thought they didn't respect me. I never go behind people's backs. I respect people, and I want respect, too.
I told him that I would play Fed Cup as I'm available. The schedule is extremely hard. He convinced me to play last year, and he told that he was never going to ask me to play next year. Then he says I have to play, and it's a mess. He says one thing and does another thing, and it's not working that way.
I do think there are people in Russian who respect me as a player, and that's why I couldn't just let it go when he said things about me, because if I let him say things about me and don't say anything back then they might think (I am egotistical). Once I said what I said, everyone was behind me, not him. If you read the comments, 90 percent were defending me.
I never felt like I had to play Fed Cup against Serbia, I felt like, "Who if not me?" With Maria (Sharapova) and the other girls deciding not to play, that's their own things. I look after myself. If I have a free week to play, then why not?
I'm probably not going to play the April tie against the U.S. in Alabama. Not to go home before the clay-court season and rest and prepare, that would be bad. It's really important for me to go home and rest and to prepare for Stuttgart, Rome, Madrid and French Open and play well.
I don't talk to other players much about playing Fed Cup. We are all very good, but we are individuals. Sometimes when I try to get the girls together, I get in trouble. Before this tie, I tried to get something together with the whole team, and then both sides get at me and I get in trouble. So I said, "Do it yourself." Sometimes you try to do the best thing and it becomes the worst.
But in Serbia, we had one of the best team spirits ever. I felt like the leader there because I had more experience. I try to help everybody if they appreciate it as long as they don't lose the respect. Sometimes, they take your kindness for weakness, and that's what I hate about people.
When you come on tour, it's so sweet. Then when you get toward the top, people treat you differently and you feel so cool. But you do the same thing year after year and you get bored, so you really have to just focus on getting ready for the big events.
March 11 — Jelena Jankovic
Former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who is seeded No. 6 at the BNP Paribas Open, blogs for FOXSports.com at Indian Wells on her recent struggles and what brings her happiness off court:
I've been working hard in practice and feel better every day. Today, I was like another player, two levels better than I've been. I know I can do it, but I feel like I'm losing my concentration and can't focus for a long period of time. I can play well for a couple of games and then really bad for a couple of games. Maybe it's a lack of matches. I have to be able to concentrate in practice first and then know I can do it in matches, too.
Today in practice, I even got applause from the crowd, and that's unusual. When does that ever happen? So I was doing a really good job.
My game is coming together, but it's been a struggle during the last year. I've had a couple of good tournaments, but not to the level that I can play. I've done it before, and it's a matter of working and staying positive. I also have to improve, make those little steps forward. If I you don't do that, you go backward and your game starts falling apart. Then you don't enjoy it and it's not fun.
You have to stay mentally tough and optimistic, but in a realistic way. You can't hide when you are doing something wrong and pretend that it's right. You have to change and be realistic. Then, when you begin to move better, hit the ball better, you can find motivation and the will to get on court. Until then, you don't feel like getting out there, because you are playing so badly and are miserable.
I just turned 25, and I've been on the tour so many years and played so many matches, Our season is so long that even in our offseason, which is short, you are training and your body wears out. It's not how old you are, but how many miles you have put on your body and how many hours you've been out there. Many days, you wake up and everything hurts. You feel slow and heavy. A couple of years ago, I never got tired, I could run around the court and travel all over the place, and now I'm really feeling it.
You have to find ways to stay motivated, and that's why I admire Roger Federer, because he never gets injured or tired or lacks motivation. It's amazing. People think you are at the top of the game and you can be there for 10 years and it's really hard. Even if you really love the sport, your body can't do it. And then your game starts breaking down, you're getting injured and your mind isn't there either. It's tough.
What makes me happy these days is the house I'm building in San Diego. I went there the week before Indian Wells with my dad, and it gives me another perspective. Sometimes, I get down on myself and I see the house and it's a dream home and it shows me that I've done a really good job to be able to have the money to build this house.
I don't know why I'm getting upset losing tennis matches. It isn't like I'm really sick, and it isn't going to take away that I was No. 1 or what I've done in my career. To make enough money to have built a 20,000-square foot house, that's a really good job. It has a pool, a 10-car garage, gym, tennis court and theater. I have no idea what I have in there, it's so big.
I hope to move in by the end of the year. My plan is to spend more of my time in San Diego. It has a nice climate, people are laid-back and I can go to L.A., Mexico and Las Vegas if I want because they are close.
When I think of the house, I start to think, "Why can't I go on court and just enjoy my tennis?" Losing a match is not the end of the world, and it puts things in a different perspective. I have goals, but I don't have to beat myself up and think I've never done anything or don't know how to play. Everyone has negative thoughts and thinks they are off and don't know what they are doing. You can change your mentality and just play and when you don't feel like playing, it's better not to go on court and do a terrible job.
In our 3-2 Fed Cup loss to Russia at home, it was unfortunate that Ana Ivanovic couldn't win one of her singles matches, because that's what we were going for, to win the three singles matches because we weren't counting on doubles. I was really happy that I beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alisa Kleybanova, whom I had never beaten before.
Ana was nervous, but everyone is nervous and you care so much because you to want to win, but she couldn't get her game together. But she's not the only one who is struggling, We're not really good doubles players, and we lost to Kuznetsova and Kleybanova in doubles. We didn't know each other's games, what ball to take, and we got confused. We were all over the place. We didn't know how to play together as team.
I hope to a have a long career, and when I retire, I would like to help some kids and share my tennis experience, but not on a daily basis. I don't want to coach and be on the tour every day. I want to have a normal life, be at home and have another business, but I will give something back to tennis, because it's been what I've done well most of my life.
