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BNP PARIBAS WTA FINALSOctober 21, 2014Monica PuigSINGAPORE, SINGAPORE M. PUIG/S. Zheng THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Congratulations. MONICA PUIG: Thank you. Q. Obviously it was a pretty emotional win for you. Sort of a unique first‑time event. What did winning this event in particular mean to you? MONICA PUIG: It means a whole lot. I mean, it's a last event of the year, and unfortunately I hadn't had a good end to the year. So to finish the way I did, it really makes this so special. You know, to all the fans who voted to get me here, when I found out that I was going to come here, I was just overwhelmed and so overjoyed that I have another chance to bring out my best tennis and compete as hard as I can. Now I think I can go into the off‑season with a very positive mindset for 2015. Q. Does the way you qualified for this tournament through the votes feel different? MONICA PUIG: Yeah, of course. The fans put a lot of time and effort into voting for you. It just shows that you're a fan favorite. People like to come and watch you and root for you. It just feels so special. To know I have a lot of people backing me is a really special feeling. Q. How about this week, being around the top 8 players in the Championships format? What did you learn throughout the week and what sort of motivation will you take away? MONICA PUIG: Definitely you see how they conduct themselves. It's a very different way. They're all into their business, and that's very important. Obviously keep your focus as much as you can. You know, and that's something I've been trying to do as well, being more into myself, more with my team. Obviously I have great friends on tour and I like to have fun with everyone. But when it comes time to do your business, you do your business and then outside the court you can be whoever you want to be. In my case, I'm the socially butterfly who likes to talk to everyone. It's just basically seeing how they act at an event that's so important. Hopefully next year I can be here as one of them. Q. I saw you were injured during the first set. What happened after you came back? MONICA PUIG: I was playing well before then. I don't like to take medical timeouts honestly. I like to just play the match and feel good throughout the match. There are just those unfortunate moments where you feel like something can, you know, how do you say, can affect your game in a way. It's better to take care of it early and then continue playing the tennis that you can play. Obviously this part of the year where your body is tired, you have to kind of figure out how to balance and keep yourself 100% during each match. Q. Are you and Saisai good friend? Because I saw you post some videos on Instagram. MONICA PUIG: Yeah, we are good friends. We've known each other for a really long time, since the juniors. We actually played here in Singapore in the Youth Olympic Games. It was the first time we ever played each other. We played each other now back in Singapore, so I think Singapore is our thing. But, yeah, I like to be friends with the people who I travel with and who I see all the time. Because at the end of the day, this is a very lonely sport. If you can have acquaintances in every single every tournament and have somebody to talk to who is not in your team, then it just makes life a little bit more fun. Q. In your opinion, what do you think they can do to make the Rising Stars format better? MONICA PUIG: In my opinion, how they did it is perfect. It was short. It was a nice and short event. Didn't really take away from the top eight being here, but it's a great way to see how this event runs, how it's like. It just is kind of inspiring for us. I think they did such a great job with it this year.  Honestly, there is nothing that I can pick at that's wrong. It's just such an amazing event. For the WTA to think outside of box and do something like this was amazing. Q. You saved a lot of break points, four in one game. What do you think were the decisive moments or factors? MONICA PUIG: Well you know, I looked back at the last time I played her in the round robin. Actually, I like to watch might have play a lot. So on YouTube I ended up putting my name and adding Singapore to it, so I found the ten‑point tiebreaker that we played in the previous match. So I saw basically what's going on, and I saw it from a different view. When you're on the court you can't really see yourself doing things. So just to see myself, what I was doing and trying to do things a little bit differently. So I thought I needed to be a little bit more aggressive and use my strengths. That was my forehand and basically using my athleticism to run around the whole court. I just felt like today I was more aggressive than I was the other day, and that really gave me a lot of success. Q. Is Saisai a good singer? What did she say to you after the game? MONICA PUIG: Well, Saisai is a very good singer. She tries really hard and you can really tell that she's trying hard when she sings. We had a blast at the karaoke. I think more tournaments should do it, because I had such a great time. After the match it's just a good job. You know you played so well. We're good friends, so there is really nothing we can say to each other that's going to affect one another. We're just that type of people that we do our business on the court, and when we get off the court we're still good friends. Q. How close do you think you are to closing the gap between you and the top? Do you feel like there is still a big step? MONICA PUIG: Well, of course. You know, I feel like I'm almost there. This year has been a year of transition. I changed coaches twice, and now I feel like I'm finally in the situation where I need to be. I'm feeling more stable, and I think at this end of the year was just trying to continue that consistency. I think in 2015, once I get done with the off‑season and the pre‑season work, I'm going to be ready to push forward. I know that I'm very good when I work on the practice court, and just translating what I learn on the practice court to be the match court is what's going to make the difference. Q. What was harder winning the vote or the tournament? MONICA PUIG: I think I they were both equally hard, because every day, every week trying to get the vote was very nerve‑wracking. We were all like, Vote for me, do this, do that. Trying to think of different pathways to get a lot of votes. That was really hard. Winning the tournament playing tennis matches is extremely difficult, so I think they were both really challenging in different ways. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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