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U.S. OPEN

September 2, 2016

Johanna Konta

New York, NY, USA

J. KONTA/B. Bencic

6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Could you tell us how you recovered from other day and how satisfied you were with your performance today?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think I'm still constantly working on recovering. I think it's a management process more than anything.

But I feel good. I feel well enough to play. I'm really happy with how I was able to just really focus on the match at hand and the work at hand and then put all else out of my mind.

Q. Did you practice much yesterday or completely rest?
JOHANNA KONTA: No, I did. I hit about 25 minutes or so. I warmed up one of the other players for their match.

Q. Can it be freeing in some way to be in a pressure situation in a match to come through it? I know some players feel that anything after that is a bonus.
JOHANNA KONTA: I didn't really look at it like that for me. I actually tried to look at it as a great opportunity to manage the situation that I had. It was a slightly new situation, the aftermath of it, and even today and now obviously I have one more chance to come out and play.

Obviously I think I'm just looking at it as a chance to be grateful for the circumstance I have and the other chance just to improve.

Q. She didn't really seem to do any of the sort of tricks and dropshots that we expect from her. I guess you didn't give her time.
JOHANNA KONTA: I think, yeah, I felt I did a good job just, you know, staying focused on the things I want to execute and how I wanted to play. I definitely made it hard for her to get into the match, I felt.

But, yeah, I think for me it was just really about focusing on things on my end.

Q. How big was it is to get out of there in 52 minutes after what had happened yesterday?
JOHANNA KONTA: I didn't really look at the time. I think, again - I know it sounds very repetitive - but my sole focus was just to focus on myself, focus on my breathing and focus on really simplifying the match into just each point being its own battle and trying to win as many of those as I could and really just simplify the game into giving my best and see where that took me.

Q. Presumably it's better to do it in 52 minutes than an hour and 52 minutes.
JOHANNA KONTA: I think both scenarios have good and bad things.

Q. Can you be a bit more specific? When you say you're recovering, did you mean physically or psychologically or in what way?
JOHANNA KONTA: In every way. I think it was quite a traumatic experience. You know, I'm just still, you know, working on getting better. I think the best I can do for myself is move on from it, and I felt I did that.

Yeah, I focused on the match that I had today, and now I feel very lucky that I have got another chance to focus on the match I will have on Sunday.

Q. You defended your ranking points for last year now. Was that something on your mind at all, or were you just simply taking it one match at a time?
JOHANNA KONTA: Definitely one match at a time. I wasn't thinking about that. The ranking points, they come and go every week. I definitely can't live on my results here last year.

I was really, I really am enjoying the tournament now this year for what it is.

Q. What do you know about your next opponent?
JOHANNA KONTA: I don't know who it is.

Q. Sevastova.
JOHANNA KONTA: I have played her once before actually in my first Australian Open qualifying, so I do know her and I have been on court with her. That was a number of years ago. She's obviously playing very good tennis. She is a very good player. I have a lot of respect for her.

Yeah, hopefully we'll have a good match.

Q. This is still the first big tournament that you had a good result in last year. How special is it just in general not thinking about having to defend points?
JOHANNA KONTA: I do love the US Open. I do have a lot of firsts here. It was the first time I got to play -- qualify, sorry, not play -- first time I got to qualify into the main draw. It was the first slam I went deeper in, as well.

So, yeah, no, I definitely think the US Open has got its own vibe, its own organized chaos. I think there is a lot of enjoyments players take from that.

Q. Do you feel it kind of vibes with your personality? How do you approach the New York atmosphere?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think it's always a great challenge. I think if you can stay focused and calm and, yeah, just really focused on the work at hand here, you can make it anywhere. (Laughter.)

Q. After the other day, did you go and do something fun to take your mind off of it, or was it a case of having to be full-on recovery?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, number one was my health and number one was just taking care of that. So it was just eating and sleeping.

Q. Have the medics told you how long it will take you to recover fully from all of this?
JOHANNA KONTA: No, because it's not -- it's not -- it wasn't something like that. I got checked in terms of my heart and everything and everything looked good. Everything's fine.

I think it's something that will obviously just be getting better. It will be absolutely fine hopefully by tomorrow or when I get the chance to have a little bit of a rest.

I mean, right now I really do feel good. Yeah, just moving on from it.

Q. Have you gotten a chance to follow some of the tournaments of your fellow UK players on the men's side? Some of them have been having some pretty good runs here.
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, I saw three of them are in and Dan won. I saw three of them are still in. Yeah, that's really exciting. Hopefully Kyle will have a good match today. I saw he's playing.

But, yeah, that's good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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