World No. 60 Polina Kudermetova shared insights into the reasons behind her improved performance. At Indian Wells, the Russian player reached the third round, defeating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova (7-5, 6-2).
“This is my first time in Indian Wells. And the courts here are very peculiar; I managed to scrape my knee in the first match,” Kudermetova noted.
When asked about the court surface being described as “sandpaper” by Daniil Medvedev, Kudermetova agreed, “Yes, it’s like sandpaper. I bent my legs so well that I started bleeding right in the second rally of the match. My mother mentioned that all cameras were focused on my knee,” she laughed.
“Actually, I was very focused. I understood that I might miss a moment at the beginning of the set, but the coach told me to focus more, to encourage myself, and to play every ball to the end. This really helped me to win after being down 0-3.”
Regarding the breakthrough in her career, Kudermetova explained, “It’s been a long process of work. The breakthrough at the end of December marked exactly one year of working with my coach, Ravshan Sultanov. It seems we were heading towards this result all year, and it happened at that moment.”
She elaborated on her coaching journey: “Initially, my father coached me, then I trained in Kazan with another coach, but he couldn’t travel with me, unfortunately, so I was searching. And it was a fateful call to my current coach because I’ve known him for a very long time – we used to travel together in juniors. He always worked with boys and didn’t take on girls. I really asked him, and it worked out – he enjoyed working with me, and I with him. It’s been a new wave,” she chuckled.
“Most importantly, he helped me reorganize my mind. Before, when I stepped onto the court, I wasn’t really friends with it, so to speak. I understood I could play, but my thoughts often overwhelmed me, dragged me down, and I constantly lost. Although I could probably play well in those periods, unfortunately, I always lost because I couldn’t cope with my thoughts, with my tennis at times. I was unstable, and now he has brought me to stability and very good results.”
Asked if the Tennis Tour is overwhelming, Kudermetova responded, “I don’t know. I probably haven’t fully understood it yet. I’m in the process of understanding because I’m always with my sister, we are together, and I try not to get carried away,” Kudermetova said in an interview with ‘More!’
