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MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 1, 2016

Carla Suarez Navarro

Madrid, Spain

C. SUAREZ NAVARRO/T. Babos

3-6, 6-2, 6-3

(Through translation.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. (No microphone.)
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Yeah, well I already knew my opponent. I had already played against her before and it hadn't been easy to beat her.

Well, it's true that first matches are always a little bit more difficult. This year in training I have been feeling very well, but it's not the same when you go out there and play.

Also at the beginning you have nerves because you play home and want to do well. Personally for me, I think she played a very good first set. She was playing very fast. At the end, it's what happens. I think that in every match you have a margin. Of course on fast courts you have less margins, but on clay courts you have a little bit more. You have margin to change the situation and score on your side.

I tried to do that, to play a little bit more solid, to play a little bit more tactically, and I managed to turn it around.

Q. On Friday you said that you would like to come here having played a little more matches. Do you think it's good for you to have played two hours now here in Madrid?
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: No, I think it's positive for me. I just need hours of matches, hours of points, hours of competition. Well, if you win in two sets it's always better. You're always happier.

It's true that it was a three-set match, but it wasn't a match with very long points. Not very long rallies. I think it's something that can be positive and good for me for the next match.

Q. I would like you to say something about yesterday's doubles match. What were your feelings out there?
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Sincerely yesterday I felt a little bit better than today. It's true that sometimes when you play doubles, the nerves and the tension, you can share that with your partner and makes you play a little bit more solid and a little bit more freely.

I think yesterday we had a lot of fun on the court. I think the players we had, they were doubles players and they played a good match, an overall complete match. You had to stay focused. And not only that, I think that it's of course a buildup for today's match. You know how the court is laid out and you know how the people are going to be.

As I'm saying, yesterday I felt very well, and I think Garbine felt very well, too.

Q. The first match with the pressure to play at home, what do you need in the second round?
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Well, of course whenever you come to Madrid you know what can happen to you, the nerves that you can have. In the end, these are normal days. You to try to overcome it and manage it.

I think that towards the next match it's going to be important to start well, try not to be down in the score, because at the end the players also play more freely when they were up in in the score.

I think one of the things I would like to do better for the next match is to try to start positively and that the opponent doesn't go up in a lot of points. But these things happen. In matches you cannot always control everything, and that's something I would like to focus on for the next match.

Q. You know, during the last years you have changed. You consolidated up there in the top 10, 15. This year we don't have some of the best female players here. Maybe this is your time to make it to the semifinals or final.
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: No, no, every time I go to a tournament I try to make it to the final rounds whether we have the best players or whether some players haven't come. I think that all the players really think that way. You know, doesn't mean that some of the most important players are not here. I don't have to think that that's the opportunity.

Each match here is a complete world. We've seen today if you're not focused any players can win here. You just have to stay focused.

I don't want to look after the next match because I think it will be stupid. Each match here you can die or continue.

Q. I want to ask you about the famous ball yesterday that crashed against your body and went to the other side. Has that ever happened to you before?
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Yeah, there are things that happen. Well, look, you're playing. You're in a competitive moment. It's true that I didn't hit it with it racquet, but in the moment I'm not able to say that the ball touched my body.

I would like to say that, yes, but I was also in a situation that we could not give away points. These things happen. Of course, if I had stopped the point and said that the ball had touched me in the body, in my arm, it would have been -- that would have been fair play.

But I think in that moment what I did is to be competitive. I think it's something that I had never done before just to win a free point.

At the end, those things happen in competition.

Q. What did Xabi tell you at the end of the first set? Anything about tactical or mental things?
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Well, 50/50. It's true that he said that I had to try to take responsibility off me and try to play a little bit more freely and enjoy the match. But especially that: to take the responsibility off of me.

I just had to continue. I had to continue fighting. If I was capable to come back and play every point and do it hard, she would be putting her level down.

I think that that's what happened.

Q. Following up on that question and what Xabi tells you, how do you understand it and how did you turn around the match? Seemed very complicated in that moment.
CARLA SUAREZ NAVARRO: Yeah, yeah it was complicated, but I live these situations very often during the year. I play against players that serve very well. Their first shots are very fast.

At the end, it's just a little bit of that. You have to try to focus in that subject that I'm not so good at, to start the match 100% on the court. I think that will be something positive and helpful for me for the future.

It's true every time I go out for a match I try to win every single game. It's true that recently it's a little bit harder for me. You have to be patient. You have to stay calm. You have to know that on clay court I can defend myself better, that I can guide the matches and I don't have to be anxious to finish the points or get anxious because the players are playing me very fast and I'm overwhelmed. That's all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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