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U.S. OPEN

September 7, 2015

Johanna Konta

New York, NY, USA

P. KVITOVA/J. Konta

7-5, 6-3

An interview with:

JOHANNA KONTA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I guess it's probably not the result you would have chosen, but were you pleased with your performance?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, obviously not the result I wanted. It would have been nice to have kept my run here going.

But I played against an incredibly tough player today. She doesn't give you much rhythm. She definitely doesn't give you many chances to be able to take control in a point.

So it was very difficult for me out there. But I had an amazing time on Ashe, to be honest. You know, my mum actually reminded me when I was speaking to her yesterday that when we were here back like 2007 for juniors, I said, This is like the most amazing stadium. I completely forgot about that.

Yeah, I guess I had a little childhood dream come true, so that's pretty special. Yeah, I'm just obviously looking forward to a little bit of recovery now, you know, heading over to Asia.

Q. Have you ever played anyone who hits the ball as hard as Petra?
JOHANNA KONTA: Obviously Sharapova hits it quite hard, and Muguruza hits it quite hard and Petkovic hits it quite hard. A lot of girls hit it quite hard.

I think what Kvitova does really well is she keeps very good depth on her ball, as well. That's why it's quite difficult to be able to take charge in a point. Yeah, she gave me very few chances to do that.

Yeah, no, good luck to her for the rest of the tournament because I thought she played quite well.

Q. What were the keys to your run? What did you do so well here?
JOHANNA KONTA: You know, I think I stayed true to how I wanted to play out there. I felt that I competed really well, just stayed calm. Really rolled with the punches. There's a lot of things going on here. There's a lot of emotions from a lot of players. It's a high-pressured environment. I felt I did a reasonable job at just dealing with that.

Yeah, no, I'm just looking forward to the next time I can go out onto the match court.

Q. How proud are you that you proved at this level in a Grand Slam?
JOHANNA KONTA: Obviously I'm really happy that I got some rewards for my hard work. But the hard work's not by all means over. You know, I'm not blown away by my performance here. I'm just satisfied that I get a little bit of candy for doing well.

Yeah, no, to be really honest, I'm just really looking forward to heading already to my next tournament. Obviously I need to take a little bit of a break now, just a couple days' rest. But I'm looking forward to the next plane I'm on to head to Asia.

Q. How important is the next bit of candy to be the British No. 1? Very, very close.
JOHANNA KONTA: Oh, to be honest, that's always (indiscernible) at the end. I haven't looked at that. I don't know. I don't even know what Heather is ranked right now. That's not something I actively look at.

It's always a nice bonus to hear that from you guys. Yeah, no, it's not my, I guess, most important goal.

Q. When you look back over the whole tournament, are you surprised at all the way you've handled it? Nothing seems to have fazed you in any match you played. The quality of the opposition going out on Ashe, you seem to have taken it all in your stride.
JOHANNA KONTA: I'm not surprised, to be honest. Because if I would be, I wouldn't be thinking very highly of myself.

Like I said, I'm humble with coming up against any opponent knowing that I can beat them but they can beat me. I can lose, they can win. I'm humble in that way. But I'm an ambitious person. I do believe in my ability, and I wouldn't be playing in this sport if I didn't think that I could do well.

So I'm just really looking forward to getting back out on court with my coaches and my team and training and just keep enjoying the battle of just getting better every day. When things don't go my way, keep enjoying that, as well.

Q. Your run here will put you into the top 60. You won't have to qualify for Australia. How much of a relief is that to go straight into the main draw?
JOHANNA KONTA: Obviously it's another bit of candy. Yeah, no, I was anticipating -- I wasn't anticipating anything really, to be honest. My coach was actually saying, Oh, it's a nice bonus to be able to go to Australia next year and go into the main draw.

But, yeah, you know, things keep going. I don't want to stop here. It's not something that I sit back now, and, Oh, that's nice. Like I keep saying, I'm an ambitious person, so I'm just looking forward to keep working hard and keep trying my best every time I step out onto the court.

Q. In the first set you had three breakpoints. You lost both your serves on double-faults. Can you call it a little bit of a case of stage fright? Were you nervous in those pivotal moments of the match?
JOHANNA KONTA: I wouldn't call it stage fright. I think if it were stage fright we would have seen it at the beginning of the match. I actually settled quite quickly and enjoyed being out there. It sounds silly to say it was a great court to play on, because that's just so obvious. But it really was. It was a great court to play on.

I think she played really well when she was breakpoints down. Obviously, you know, I'm not that happy with how I double-faulted the two times I was breakpoint down. But in all fairness, whether it was a conscious thing or not, she puts pressure on my serves, on any servers. She looks to step in. She really does take some swings at the ball. A lot of them do go in. That's why she is top five.

Maybe I consciously, subconsciously felt that. But honestly I felt I was trying to serve the same and just trying to do my best out there.

Q. Who was here watching you tonight? There were some kids in your box.
JOHANNA KONTA: To be honest, I don't know. I put my agent in charge of all the tickets. It was at her discretion who was getting them. I pretty much just only look at my coach if I'm looking at anyone. Obviously I'm aware that my boyfriend and my agent were next to him. Otherwise, I don't actually know. I didn't even look there.

Q. What will your program be the next few weeks?
JOHANNA KONTA: I'll be going home. Dad will be cooking, yeah. A few days' rest. Some training. Then I'll probably be heading to Wuhan and Beijing.

Q. You've been getting a lot of questions about your win streaks and all that. Sorry. How does that feel? Is there part of you to be somewhat relieved?
JOHANNA KONTA: I'm dead honest when I said you were the ones updating me on that. I wasn't really counting myself. Actually, I'm okay. Like I said, it was not going to go on forever. So, you know, everyone loses sometimes. There will be many more matches that I'll lose and hopefully many more that I'll win. Hopefully I'll have another streak someday.

To be honest, I'm really happy I'm leaving this tournament after so many matches and coming in here healthy. My body's in a good state. That's not always the case when you've played so many matches. I'm taking the positives from that, and really, if I wasn't a bit kind of sleepy tired, I'd be looking forward to getting on the court when I got home.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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