An Interview with Aljaz Bedene

The day before yesterday, I wrote about the experience and the excitement of going for your first interview. You have been anxiously waiting for the interview. Here you go, TS stands for Tennis Statistics, and AJB stands for Aljaz Bedene. You can follow Aljaz Bedene on twitter here and on face-book here.

Image via en.wikipedia.org

TS: Hi Aljaz, How are you doing?

AJB: I am good, thanks, how are you doing?

TS : I am good. Thank you, and thanks for giving me some time. 

AJB : Pleasure is always mine.

TS: I have a couple of questions, shall we proceed?

AJB: Yeah, sure

TS: Can you please tell us a little about your child-hood? How did you spend your child-hood, your favourite activities while growing, were you ever punished by your teacher like all of us ;)

AJB: Well my childhood was very good, I did a lot sports like gymnastics, skiing, basket-ball, tennis. I have never been punished by my teachers, so yeah, I was a good kid.

TS: Who was your idol while growing up?

AJB:I used to follow Formula F-1 a lot,  Michael Schumacher, and I started following tennis a little late, however, in tennis Fernado Gonalalez.

TS: Fernando Gonzalez, he had one of the best fore-hands, we have ever seen.

AJB : Yes, he had a great fore-hand

TS: What was the decisive factor, or the influencing personality that made you play tennis and make a career in it?

Image via Aljaz Bedene's Face book page

AJB: From all the sports I played, I was best in tennis. I was also the best in Slovenia. I also knew I can compete in the world, my family supported me. They supported me knowing that it is one of the most expensive sports, and have always been very supportive.  One time I remember, I remember competing in ski jumping, and my uncle who loved tennis, came to me and said why don’t you play tennis.

TS: What has been your best on-court moment so far?

AJB: Playing in Chennia, and beating Stanislas Wawrinka and going on playing Tipsarevic on the centre court in the semi-finals.

TS: Your best off-court moment so far.

AJB: It would be meeting my girl friend, Kim Perme. I saw her 6 years ago. We have been together for the last 2.5 years.

TS: How do you prepare for a match before it, do you listen to songs, talk to someone?

AJB: I talk to my coach, I have some relaxing time just to concentrate and keep my focus on.

TS: How do you celebrate a win?

AJB: I will go out with my friends or girl friend or stay with my twin brother and enjoy the feeling.

TS: How many siblings do you have?

AJB: Only twin brother. He also travels with me and plays tennis futures and challengers events.

One silly thing that I ended up asking here was, what is his age? and Aljaz went like, He is my twin ;)

TS: Which shot do you consider is your best shot?

AJB: Forehand

TS: Which surface is the one you love playing on?

AJB: I love all on them,but the most I love playing on is on clay

TS: You did great in Chennai, you lost a tight semi-final against Tipsarevic, what was the feeling after that?

AJB: The feeling was good. I played a good match, which made me show I can play with the top players at the top level. I was sad at losing the match, because I did not take my chances when I had them, but overall I had a lot of positives to take away from the match and the tournament.

TS: You play 3^rd on court no.10 tomorrow, how has the preparation been going?

AJB: The preparation has been going as per the plan, and yes I am feeling good, I hope I can give you people something to cheer on.

TS: What do you normally do to motivate yourself on court, if you are feeling low on court?

AJB: Well, I am always motivated. I just try to keep on going.

TS: Are you superstitious, like putting your bottles back in the exact same spot, not wearing certain colour or any such thing?

AJB: Well I don’t have any superstitions on the court.

TS: How do you spend your leisure time?

AJB: Well, I spend it with my girl friend, my friends and my brother. We go out to dine and watch movies.

TS: Your best friend, and the person you love spending your time with the most?

AJB: I would say, not only one, many, my twin brother, my girl friend, two friends at home and of-course my coach, so yes not one best friend.

TS: If you had to steal one shot from an ATP player, which shot will it be and from which player?

AJB: RogerFederer, and his backhand, and I would steal it not because it is the best backhand, we know it is not the best, but because it looks so graceful.

TS : Who is your best on-tour friend?

AJB: Lots of friends on challenger tour, but here on the ATP, I made some good friends in Chennai with Roberto Bautista Agut, the Spanish player and Joao Souza from Portugal.

TS : What are your goals for this year?

AJB: To reach the top 50, and win ATP tournaments.

TS : Any thoughts on the grunting issue and the time code violation of 25 seconds that has been going on lately. 

AJB: When I played in Chennai, I had everything under control in my match against Tipsarevic, I was under control. I was down 15-30 on my serve, and I got a warning and after that it was like I was rushing and things just went out of control, so yeah it is not good. It is bad for me and most of the players.

As for grunting, it is always funny watching, for spectators it is sometimes good. Some players are used to doing it so you can’t change them, but yeah, for the next generations this is something that needs to be worked on.

TS: I am an audit trainee, and all my team members had some questions for you and they really wanted to talk to you, but to different time zones, the office time is over here, though I am still in office, so they went home.

AJB: It was nice of them.

TS: Any message for your fans

AJB : Yeah, thanks for the support and I hope I will give them something to cheer on for tomorrow and just not for tomorrow or for this year, but for many years to come.

The interview was taken on the first day of the Australian Open.