“Yulia believes that Moscow did not give her what Kazakhstan gave her”, — write: sport.ua
“I think there were many reasons actually, not only the financial side. But in Russia, I was one of the leaders in juniors, under 14, and under 12. All the time, I stood out – not only with my character, but also with my excellent tactical game (laughs). A little self-promotional, but never mind.
In Russia, I was not given the opportunity to train anywhere for free. Dad paid for all the courts himself, and it was difficult in the winter because time is limited, the courts are expensive, besides the court, you have to pay for the coach, for the balls, for the whole process. And in Kazakhstan, I was offered the conditions of a training base.
When I came there for the first time, they immediately brought me a box of balls. My dad is like: “Never mind, the box of balls is new.” In Moscow, we have a box of balls for a month. And then a box arrived for a week. My dad is like this: “Can I take it to Moscow?” (laughs)
Excellent training conditions were provided all the time. Coaches came, someone helped, they gave sparring sessions. Of course, when conditions are created for you, it is better than when no conditions are created for you.
Plus, I was not given a wild card either for the Kremlin Cup or for St. Petersburg. They explained that there are other players, more mature, who deserved it, stood somewhere more. Although I never understood: they gave a wild card to someone whom I beat, and they told me: she had some results that were better than 16 at the European Championship. I was already playing before I was 18, I’m in my twenties. And the girl wins the European Championship, and she is given a wild card.
There were some incomprehensible cases. And then, which my parents didn’t like either: I was 14 or 15 years old, I won 25, 25 and 50 (ITF thousands) in one year, in my opinion, yes. And I became the 250th or 300th, somewhere in this area. Although I played six tournaments. And we also asked for a wild card for the Kremlin Cup, and they gave this wild card not to me, but, in my opinion, to Buchynia, that was the girl. And my dad started: “How so? Why? And for what?”. I think they said that Buchyna played the US Open final. Well, at that time I thought that winning the 50,000th was better than playing the final of the junior US Open. But they didn’t give me a wild card, dad got upset, we flew to Kazakhstan, started training there, an offer came, and we agreed…
If the conditions were good for me in Moscow, maybe I wouldn’t have moved, maybe I would have. But I can say unequivocally that thanks to Kazakhstan, I am where I am now, because the conditions were created for me both for training and for preparations, in order to show the maximum.
When I fly to Fedkapi, there is some kind of help: tickets and so on or some national ones. Or sometimes there is a pre-season, and they have the initiative to create a meeting here, a meeting there. For example, my knee hurt. They also helped me with physio. And, in principle, there is help. Not like it was before, but in a different way, let’s say.
Yes, yes, but still, they are very interested in the process going, so that all the players are doing well. There is help. And I like the attitude that all the time from the federation everyone congratulates even with minimal results, they call all the time, they say: “Damn, great, well done, continue in the same spirit.” There is feedback all the time.”