Net Posts With Julija Lukac
February 07, 2012 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 7, 2012
One of four freshmen that make up half of the Washington roster this season, Julija Lukac came to Seattle from Belgrade, Serbia, also the hometown of sophomore Andjela Nemcevic. Lukac earned a top-300 world ranking from the ITF for 18-and-under and has earned WTA Tour points as well. Lukac won her first two dual singles matches against San Diego and California two weeks back. The newcomer talked to GoHuskies.com about the challenges adjusting to a new country, the strong bond on this year's team, and defending the world's top-ranked player, Novak Djokovic.
GoHuskies: How tough was the transition coming to America and starting college, and how much more comfortable do you feel now?
Julija Lukac: Coming into fall, I expected it to be hard, but I didn't know what to expect, how it's going to be, what we have to do, from the morning to practice, school, and practice, to road trips, not having time for much else other than homework and practice. It was really hard because of the language barrier. Whatever I know in my language I need to translate it to English, especially with the studying. With the culture it wasn't that bad, I adjusted really fast, but in school because I took chemistry which is a quite hard class, it was pretty hard. We have a lot of internationals on the team so it was easier and my roommate is Capucine, who is French, so it was easier to have someone who is in the same position and to see how, if they can do it I can do it too. Now it's much better, since the winter started I'm like a new person. I know what to expect and how to handle the pressure, how to organize my time, it's much, much better than it was in the fall.
GH: Do you think the stress outside was affecting your play on the court?
JL: Well right now, not that much. In the fall it was affecting more because I was really stressed with school, how I'm going to do it, I didn't know. Because in my country we are used to having just verbal exams, we didn't have written exams, and here writing papers and everything so I was really stressed about it, now when I know what to expect it's not affecting tennis that much.
GH: Was there anything else that caught you by surprise?
JL: Homesickness. I was really homesick. The culture is different, people are different, and I was like, I miss home, I miss my friends, family, to have someone when it's hard, when I feel tired and when I'm overwhelmed. I have Andjela here, she's from Serbia, so it was a little easier but still, family and friends it's always hard.
GH: How long have you known Andjela?
JL: I knew her since we were like 10 years old and we used to practice together sometimes and we went to the holidays together before so it was so much easier with her because she had already been through her first year so she helped me with everything. It's really good to have someone you know so good, and who knows you good so she knows how to react, she can calm me down or help me.
GH: Have you been in the team environment before?
JL: No, no. before I was always on my own and I was always jealous of the team sports because they would always have the support of their teammates and if they weren't doing good they had their teammates to help them to overcome that and I was always alone on the court. So this is a really great experience and that's one of the most important reasons why I came to college because I felt like I needed someone next to me and here we are all a team, so when you play you are not just playing for yourself, first of all you play for your teammates, second of all you play for the coach, then you represent the school and then in fourth place you're playing for yourself I think you give like 200% because of the people who believe in you and who love you no matter what, so it's a much better feeling.
GH: Do you think you've gotten over the language barrier?
JL: Yeah, I am, for sure. I still need to work a lot but now it's much, much better than in the fall. I understand better and I talk better.
GH: Are you taking similar science classes this quarter?
JL: Oh, no! I changed it, I tried because I'm not sure what's my major so I tried with science, but now I realized I would not like to do that for all my life so now I'm going to try with business or economics. I would like to maybe try some communications as well so I'm not sure yet.
GH: have you gotten to see much of Seattle at all?
JL: Not really. Maybe I went three times this year, but every time was fun. Black Friday was the funniest because we went to the shopping mall at midnight and stayed there until 6 am so it was a crazy night and the whole team, we all went together so it was really fun and then we had a couple of team dinners for someone's birthday. That team stuff away from the tennis center are always fun, and Seattle's a really nice city. What I saw is really great, and everyone was complaining about the weather, it's not that bad, really. I thought it was going to rain and rain, and okay sometimes it's hard rain but usually it's the light one, I don't even feel it.
GH: Any little things you miss about Belgrade?
JL: My city compared to Seattle, my city is old, and old-fashioned, you have an old and new part so it's like a mixture of Eastern European and Turkey and Asia and all of that and it went through a couple of wars so it has some destroyed things, when I come here everything is new for me, like buildings look so fashionable, it's really nice, I love that. Belgrade is on two rivers, so it has a lot of water around, so when I got to Seattle and I see water it reminds me of my city.
I miss food. I miss food so much, it's so much different here. I don't know, home for me it seems more natural there, and I'm not used to eating burgers and that stuff.
GH: You had a couple big wins at California. That must have felt good.
JL: Well first I got a couple big loses. In Michigan, I was really stressed. My first matches I put so much pressure on myself, because I wanted to show so much, but I couldn't show 10% and then I worked with sports psychologist also last week Dr. Ron, he called me down and we had a really nice conversation. How can I overcome my stress, especially when I have to serve? That was my biggest fear because before I never had problems with serve and then suddenly, like in practice I cannot miss the cone, I cannot miss wherever I imagine I want to serve, and then it comes to the match and I don't feel my hand. Then I worked with him and with Jill and Luke and they believed in me and they gave me so much support and they let me play, because it was not sure that I'm going to play at Cal so they gave me another chance after Michigan and I just knew that I had to use it. My first match the girl, she was just lobbing. First set I was too much in a hurry to finish the point, I was not patient at all and then I lost 6-2 and then I told myself, okay, now you are going to play like fifty balls, lobs if you have to, and wait for the last one. You have time, you're not going to run away anywhere, so I changed my game, and I won the set 6-4 and then (the rest of the team) all finished, except me and Natali and they came to watch us and they gave me so much support after each point whole team was screaming and I think that was the most important thing to help me overcome my crisis because if I was playing just for myself all alone I would say, I cannot do this, but when I saw them next to the court and I knew that they lost to San Diego last year in a tough match, I was like I have to win this match and I won it in the end.
Then against Cal I played against a French player, she was really good, but not mentally tough, so I waited for my opportunities. First set she was like 5-2 up but on the important points she could not finish and so I won all the important points. I won the first set 7-6 and then second set she started playing like she had nothing to lose, and I lost second set 6-1 and then third was super-tiebreak so I had to refocus completely and then again she started missing a little bit and I caught her there and I won. I was really happy and I felt my self-confidence to improve because it wasn't at the perfect level at the beginning. And my serve was a little better, not the best, but it's improving. I think now I feel it much better after these two wins. I have confidence, so I can work better; I'm more positive.
GH: How's it been taking road trips with the team?
JL: It's an unbelievable experience, seriously, the support between us, and even when something is not going as good we are trying to stay positive and the support next to the court, it's unbelievable. Me and (Adrijana Pavlovic) we didn't play doubles but we were screaming after every point and that energy, I love that. We missed the flight coming back so Luke was really nice, because we wanted to go to visit San Francisco and he took us there. We had fun, we ate together, we took pictures, we really enjoyed our time off the court. I think we have a really good team spirit off the court which is very important. I really love it. And we were all excited, like we missed the flight, okay no matter, we are going to San Francisco and we just enjoyed our time. It's not all about tennis.
GH: You'll get to stay at home for a few weeks now and play some home matches. Are you looking forward to that?
JL: Yeah, our first home match is coming. So, I'm really excited about that because we were always playing on the other school's facilities so they were always having support of the fans we never had. So it will be the first time we will have home energy, the fans and everything behind us but that's also a different kind of pressure, because we want to show our best, especially because we're four freshmen who have never played with our fans. So I think it's going to be interesting. And four weeks of school, it's also, these travels with school, it's a little hard. Because I had to take my midterm on Friday after my match, three hours and a half, with that lobbing girl, I took my midterm right after, like half an hour later, and in the match I'm thinking, oh I have my midterm after. Even though I don't want to think about it, it's somewhere in the back of my mind.
GH: Are you a big Novak Djokovic fan?
JL: Yeah I am. Especially because he's not the favorite player of people around here, so our biggest arguments in our team, when it comes to that, are about Djokovic. So after the final with Nadal, we were on two sides. Me and Andjela on one side because we are Serbian, and the rest of the team was on the other side, against Djokovic. So it's always like, "Is he faking his injuries?" Or, "Is he mentally tough?" I think he's a great player and great person. He can sometimes be annoying with his breathing, but I know his doctors and he has a really bad asthma problem, so he really cannot breathe. And now I'm a little sick so I cannot really breathe with my nose so I want to die after five balls. So I can imagine him after every point like that, so it is unbelievable what he is doing right now. He's unbeatable. He beat Nadal in like six finals, and this last one was incredible. He was 4-2 down in the fifth set and he overcame the crisis and he won.
GH: What do you like to do in your free time?
JL: I love hanging out with friends whenever I have time. Even here, if I have half an hour, I like to go to U-Village or just hang out a little bit. I also love watching movies, everybody loves that. And reading a book. That calms me down. And also I love watching other sports like basketball, volleyball and soccer. I'm not really a big fan of football, that's not a common sport in Europe and it lasts too long. I can watch one half; I'm okay with that. And only on TV, in reality it becomes too boring for me.
