He really, really wanted to skate with her. In one of the early interviews in that same video collection - the one where he seems to speak a lot about his previous partnership, he says that Tania is the best female partner figure skater in the world. The reporter asks him: "The best? Not even ONE of the best, but simply THE BEST?" And he answered that he hadn't seen any other girl do ...(and here he comes up with a sequence of elements, that I know nothing about

), so yes, the absolute best and not even Aliona or anyone else is better. He seemed to have a tremendous admiration for her athletic abilities from the very beginning, apart from any other type of admiration he might have felt. Interestingly, in the same interview he says that female partners tend to develop an unhealthy feeling of possession for their male partners especially if they train from early age and hinted that it was a problem in his previous partnership, so in a way it was easier for him and more reassuring that Tania came to the partnership already in a relationship with Stas. She seemed to listen very carefully to all that and I suppose took mental notes