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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 17, 2016

Johanna Konta

Cincinnati, Ohio

J. KONTA/D. Vekic

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations.
JOHANNA KONTA: Thank you.

Q. First set was a bit of a battle though.
JOHANNA KONTA: To be honest, all of it was quite battle-like. I think we had quite a few games where it was -- actually, in the second set I think we had two games ten minutes each. A lot of challenges going back and forth.

Yeah, so I think nothing is given. Yeah, I had -- I definitely had to keep working for it until the very last point.

Q. Happy with that performance?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, very happy to have gotten through that and just give myself another shot at coming back tomorrow and keep trying to get better.

Q. This is your first time in Cincinnati, right?
JOHANNA KONTA: It is.

Q. What do you make the conditions, the facilities? What's your impression of the tournament so far?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, I haven't actually been here that long. I got here Saturday afternoon so it's been a bit of a short turnaround, but it's humid. It is very humid, but I think it's great preparation for New York. New York is very similar conditions.

Yeah, so far, I mean, it's been a bit tricky just because of the weather, so I think the tournament has their hands full with scheduling and things like that. It hasn't been easy on anyone.

So far I'm enjoy my time here. There is a Whole Foods. I am so excited about a Whole Foods after the Olympic Village. I cannot tell you.

Q. We've heard some stories.
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, I mean, if you put it into perspective they do an unbelievable job, because if you think about it, they have to feed thousands and thousands of athletes and people.

But I'm very happy to be at Whole Foods.

Q. What was the Olympic experience like?
JOHANNA KONTA: Honestly, I'm so glad everyone has told me -- you know, they kind of did a bit of shock therapy. Oh, it's nothing like a tour event. I was kind of going in there thinking, Oh, my goodness, what is it going to be like?

I'm glad I went in that way because it was so incredible. Yeah, just to be a part of something like that and the energy of all the other athletes, yeah, pretty insane.

Q. Why didn't you attend the opening ceremony?
JOHANNA KONTA: I didn't because if I stand or sit for too long I literally get back spasms. I was like, That's not going to do me any good, so I watched it actually with some of the other athletes that couldn't go either just at our block. That was good fun.

Q. Last year at time you were playing in Vancouver. In this last year many things have changed. What about your game has improved in the last year?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, because I've had -- I mean, I've been fortunate enough to play so many matches in this period of time. I think I've definitely picked up a lot of match fitness and just a lot of experience.

I keep trying to do that every time I step out onto the court, to keep basically taking everything from the match that I'm playing and try to reinvest it into the following matches.

I think I've been able to do a good job at just reinvesting those experiences and just becoming that much tougher.

Q. When you look at women's and men's Olympic final, do you think tennis has earned its position in the Olympics?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think if you -- I can only speak for myself. Like I had an incredible match against Svetlana, and I assure you, both of us wanted to be in that event.

I mean, honestly, if you just were there, I've never seen so many emotional tennis players in my life, for one. Everyone was so emotionally invested in just trying to be there as long as possible and really immersing themselves into the Olympics really.

So I can't speak for golf. I mean, I met Justin and Danny and they were brilliant. I mean, how awesome was it when Justin won? I mean, it was brilliant. (Laughter.)

So I can only really speak for the tennis players and the ones that I saw. I mean, even here when we were watching Monica win, I mean, some of the players were in tears. Like it was -- yeah, no.

I promise you, whoever says it doesn't mean anything to tennis players has no idea what they're talking about. It meant so much to many players, me included.

Q. What was it like seeing Monica win gold?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I didn't actually see her that much, but the little bit I saw and the little bit that I saw of the social media activity, she was just so inspired. The whole week just so inspired. The whole thing is nothing but magical and inspirational. You can't describe it any other way.

Yeah, that's what's amazing about sport. I think the Olympics does an insane job of just bringing out the sport in the sports.

We can sometimes get caught up in in the business side and the points side and the money side in the normal tour events. When you go to the Olympics, it's just about your sport and really just doing the best you can. It's quite an experience.

Q. Obviously last time in London we had super Saturday which lifted the entire team.
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, we killed it. Can I just say we've been killing it? No offense. We're not going to beat the U.S. because of sheer numbers, but we're doing incredible.

Q. We're beating Australia.
JOHANNA KONTA: We're doing incredible. I'm so proud. I'm still keeping the dream alive right now. (Holding up Olympic water bottle.)

Q. Are you still watching?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah. No, I'm constantly -- yeah, that's all that's on TV. That's all I'm watching.

Q. So the Olympic dream hasn't finished?
JOHANNA KONTA: Oh, no. I am probably still going to be living in the Olympics in four weeks' time and people are going to be like, Oh, you need to move on.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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