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APIA INTERNATIONAL SYDNEY

January 13, 2016

Samantha Stosur

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

M. PUIG/S. Stosur

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you sum up that match?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: I think she played exceptionally well. She played a hundred times better than every other time I've played against her. All the things -- well, not all the things, but a few of the key things that worked in our previous matches she handled much, much better tonight.

I have to give credit where credit is due. I don't think I was obviously at my best. You know, she really put me under pressure from the first to the last point and held her nerve and everything else. You know, she played well.

Q. Serve was good?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, served very well. Kept me off balance with that and was very accurate with it. She kept going for it. She hit some pretty fast second serves.

I would obviously try and look for forehands, and she really hit that T one the ad court exceptionally well to kind of keep me guessing.

Q. Obviously not long after a loss, but how is your mood heading to Melbourne overall?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Overall I'm feeling good. Obviously still room for improvement, which is I guess normal for anyone. I've got a few days now to get down to Melbourne and practice and keep trying to prepare as best I can and try and play better.

So I think tonight it was I guess very clear to me that she was playing very well and I didn't do enough and play well enough and I got beaten. There is still room to improve, and I've got a few days to do that.

Q. If you had your time again, what would you do differently that didn't happen tonight?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: I mean, spoke about this with Dave already. I don't think it's like, Okay, you got to play her forehand or backhand more or anything like that. I just need to be better.

When she is hitting very fast returns back at my feet, I've got to serve better, maybe go for a bit more, go close to the lines, and try to get her off balance before she was able to do that to me.

A few opportunities I probably didn't take advantage of, and it's a couple of points here and there. She was very on. Even a 40-30 point on her serve, making a play is important.

So, yeah, I don't think it's totally back to the drawing board. Just needed to, when she's playing faster than me, I've got to go fast back and not necessarily try to change the pace too much.

Just go straight back at her and see how she likes it.

Q. I know tonight didn't go to plan, but overall with the week you'll be happy. Got what you wanted?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah. Look, three good matches is good. Of course you want more and you want to do better, but sitting here yesterday having won two and going into a third match, it's really good preparation for me.

I've had a lot of tennis under my belt, which is a really good thing. Yeah, can now go to Melbourne with probably a bit more confidence than I've had previous years.

Obviously there is still a lot to be done.

Q. Is the wrist getting better each match, or same?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Look, it hasn't bothered me all week, so that's a really good thing. I think the treatment I did and the three days off that I had before the tournament really was exactly what I needed.

Yeah, hopefully it stays that way. I'm not concerned about it right now.

Q. Could you dare to dream being back in the semifinals? I'm not saying you thought too far ahead, but this was maybe a little bit of a breakthrough you've been looking for and hoping for.
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah. Look, it was certainly a match I was feeling good going into. I had obviously had good success against her before, so no reason not to think that I was going to have a good shot tonight.

I knew I was going to have to play well. I know she can play really big, and the previous times we've played she does try and do that, but was very erratic. Tonight she really kept her errors down and hit a lot more winners than errors.

That's the way it goes. But, yeah, there is no doubt being in the quarterfinals I think you have the right to think you can deserve to be in the next round.

Q. That serve down the T was deceptively fast. Was she playing stronger than the last time you met her?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, similar. She just did it way better. Previous matches she would miss a lot of second serve returns. She would take really big cuts at every single shot and things that were off pace she didn't like.

Whereas I don't think she barely made an error off my slice backhand tonight and didn't miss second serve returns and was very ambitious on her serve and all those things.

I think probably this is how she wants to play, but she was able to put it together tonight. Yeah, that's the way it goes. I've got to be able to try and combat that with some of my own power and weapons.

Q. She's ranked 90; she qualified. If you were to give her a ranking, where would you seed her approximately?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: I don't know. Tonight she'd be seeded at the Aussie Open, so...

But, I mean, she has been ranked at least top 50 a couple years ago. Obviously her capability is at least that. She's been there before. I'm sure she's working on trying to get back to that spot.

Q. Just by nature of your ranking, 27, there is going to be low expectations on you from the public next week.
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Uh-huh.

Q. What about your mindset? Going down to contend for the title? Win a match or two? What is it?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: I think you're in the draw. Of course everybody wants to win it. I'm not going to say I'll be happy with making third round or found round. I'm also not going to sit here and say I'm going to win the tournament.

I don't know. I don't really ever say I want to make this round. I want to do all the things that I need to do to try and play well. And I still think my best tennis, and when I'm able to do that, is -- can definitely compete with the best in the world.

Whatever that looks like, I don't know, but I need to do a lot of things well. I think if I can do that, then, yes, my ability can have a really good tournament. Whatever that is, I don't know.

Q. Were there any aspects of your game that you were working on specifically here that you feel a lot better about going into Melbourne?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: No, I mean, not -- I didn't go into each match thinking, I want to work on my forehand today or serve. I think each match there is always things you can walk away from and think, Yep, I did that well today and not so well.

From my first round to second round I thought my first serve was a lot better. Still like to get my second serve going better and more accurate.

So that's kind of been the whole week through. So I need to go out and work on that. You know, just can be little things. Not necessarily working on one shot. It could be taking a return early on a break point or something like that where it's hard to work on that in in practice.

Look, the one thing that I'm really pleased with is I was able to come back in the first round and fight through. I wasn't playing great but I got through it. Yesterday I played better. Today wasn't as good, but gave myself a chance to be in the quarters.

Lots of little things you can take from a week like this.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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