Interview with Iroda Tulyaganova

TeamWTA: What is the status of tennis in Uzbekistan and what is your role?

 

Iroda: Tennis became popular when I started to play and reached the top 20. My role for tennis in Uzbekistan is starting a tennis school where the children can play. Not like a big academy but a tennis school.

 

I don’t know if I will be a full time tennis coach but I will help the boys and girls who want to play tennis. And I want to help somebody to play for Uzbekistan after I stopped playing.

 

TeamWTA: I have been told that the people of Tashkent consider you to be a hero, is that putting any pressure on you?

 

Iroda: Not everybody is talking nice about me. There are certainly people who are talking bad about me. Some people are jealous, they think that I believe that other people see me as a god.

 

But fortunately most of the people think positive about me and they are happy that I am playing. That makes me happy as well. I don’t feel pressure, I feel good and I love to play for Uzbekistan because of the crowd. Everybody comes to watch me play and there is no better crowd than the Uzbek crowd, for sure.

 

The other players who were playing the tournament in Tashkent said ‘we want to be finished playing before Iroda plays, otherwise we cant play’ They all wanted to see me play. That was nice; this was when I won the tournament. Everybody was so happy. But the next year I didn’t play and then they cancelled the Tashkent tournament. But we will get it back and I really would like to play, and then I might be a bit nervous because everybody wants me to win.

 

And if you lose you think: ‘they have all come to see me and I don’t want to disappoint them’ and I don’t want to lose in my hometown in front of that crowd.

 

TeamWTA: The other players from Uzbekistan like Lolita Frangulyan and Varvara Lepchenko have changed their nationality. Have you ever considered changing your nationality?

 

Iroda: Both girls have a different story. It was not very nice. Some people from Uzbekistan wanted to help them, they supported them with money. Lepchenko used the money for a passport and left for the USA. Those sponsors felt very bad about that, they just wanted to help them and she just turned her back to the country and left.

 

Frangulyan decided to stay in the US to go to school and University. She doesn’t want to play professional tennis. She is playing tennis to get into college. Her parents are there with her but they are thinking about coming back to Uzbekistan. They took her to the USA to find a better future. If you realy want to be rich and smart with a good job you need to work outside of Uzbekistan because there is no future in Uzbekistan.

 

I hope one day the country will be more popular. When you talk about Uzbekistan nobody knows it. People compare it with Afghanistan or Pakistan. We will try to get a sponsorship to support Uzbekistan and I hope that one day we will have one. Maybe some girls are thinking about leaving, because they are looking for a better future.

 

I didn’t change my nationality because I didn’t want that. I feel good. And I still don’t want to leave Uzbekistan. Maybe when I have a house somewhere outside my country I might change my nationality but not at this moment. At the moment everybody is nice and I feel fine.

 

I am a star in Uzbekistan, (laughing) so I don’t want to leave and go somewhere where nobody knows me and where I am just a normal person. Only when I have a house or an apartment its okay but not at moment, I don’t think so.

 

TeamWTA: What was it like when you moved to Germany, was it like a culture shock or were you just playing tennis?

 

Iroda: For me life was better in Germany than in Uzbekistan. I was there only to play tennis. I was practising the whole day so we didn’t have time to go out. And we were young, I was only thirteen years old. I was not even interested to go somewhere, it would be bad for me to go to the city. And I didn’t understand what culture was. The cultures of both countries are so different. Germany is much richer than Uzbekistan but we are growing up.

 

TeamWTA: Some say your injuries are caused by the way you serve. Do you think that it has changed or did your new coach change anything to prevent that.

 

Iroda: I don’t know why but maybe I have had that shoulder injury because of the way I serve. We try to change that, we try not to use so much power in the serve. We are working on a more accurate serve and a higher percentage. Better than this week (laughing) because this week I have zero percentage.

 

TeamWTA:  Your second serves seemed to be ok.

 

Iroda: Yeah it’s ok, but yes I was having a lot of injuries. We will see because I am trying to change something in my game. At the moment I changed my first serve a little bit and that didn’t take much of my shoulder and we will see how that goes.

 

TeamWTA: Don’t  you think that playing too many tournaments could have caused it?

 

Iroda: Maybe because last year I had injuries. I had played every tournament, playing for points or I had lost those points. And I had to defend my points.

 

TeamWTA: Like in Vienna? (Iroda canceled playing in Vienna and was not able to defend her points there due to an injury before the Ordina Open. –ES-)

 

Iroda: Yes, for example I wanted to go to Eastbourne last year because it is a higher tournament. Thinking that if I could win two or three rounds I will have more points. I was there and I got injured. I didn’t look for the best result in that situation. I was just going and not thinking ‘this year I will play less tournaments’.

 

TeamWTA: How is your situation in Uzbekistan, do you still live in the house you grew up in?

 

Iroda: I still live in that apartment I grew up in but we are building a bigger house and we are moving in soon. It’s a big house but I will still have that apartment because we had a lot of fun there. So I will probably keep that. And when I feel tired of the parents (laughing) I will move back to the apartment. Just to be alone.