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U.S. OPEN

August 30, 2016

Timea Bacsinszky

New York, NY, USA

T. BACSINSZKY/V. Diatchenko

6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your thoughts on that match and her play. I know she's had a lot of injuries and things and hasn't played that much. Your thoughts on her effort and how you were able to get through pretty easy.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Well, when you get to play a girl which is entering with a protected ranking you never know what to await exactly. You don't know how in shape she's going to be.

This was the difficult part of the day. Not knowing what would be just in front of me, which answers she would give to all the questions I'm asking her.

So I figured when you're not playing for a while, maybe intensity-wise you cannot, like, handle it like maybe for three sets. So I was trying -- I told myself, Okay, anyway, just try to put as much intensity as you can and try to make a long match if, let's say, she's leading or winning the first set.

Because I didn't know actually how she was really playing. I asked a little bit around, but no one saw her for last year.

Q. After you won the first set, did the second set feel easier?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Yeah, because then tactic-wise I found some things which were bothering her, so then it's easier. But really right at the beginning when you step on court you never know what's going to come, and that was the difficult part for me.

But then it was easier, let's say, in the second set, but then she calls the physio. It's not that easy because you have to stick to the game. You just have to get your mind really set on what you have to do and not like is she gonna run? Is she not gonna run? What is is she gonna do? Is she gonna hit harder? Make dropshots?

So I tried just not to think too much. Just okay, I -- I decided I'm going to run no matter what. Yeah, that's what helped me, yeah, to get through this match.

Q. What do you make of your summer so far? Like post Wimbledon, having a little bit of a break, into the Olympics, fantastic result there in doubles, now we're back on tour and the grind and the slams. What do you make of the last two months?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Well, I was supposed to get a week of holiday the same week of -- like the week of Gstaad, but it was like home tournament so I couldn't -- was tough for me because at one point I knew it would be a tough year and I would need to rest at one point.

But I chose to play Gstaad because it was home, and I was all the time complaining there were no tournaments in Switzerland. So I had to assume my status and assume everything what I said in the past, so I played it.

And then so maybe I said that in an interview already. A bought a small boat, motor boat.

Q. Boat?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Yeah, boat, so you can go like on the lake. I'm living next to a lake, so... I mean, in Lausanne, beautiful city of Lausanne, Olympic capital, by the way. Really proud to win a medal as coming from the Olympic capital.

Well, my boyfriend just passed the boat riding/driving or -- I mean the boat license. That's why he didn't come with me for the last couple of weeks, but then we went with friends. I discovered wake surfing, as well. I'm a big fan of that, as well. It's not the same the wake board.

You have your feet unattached, and you just have to -- you like hang on to a thing, like to come out of water, but then you surf the wave actually created from the boat.

So you put all the -- in French it's (Speaking French) the weight on one side. If you're goofy it's on one side; if you're regular it's on the other one.

Then you just like ride the wave which the boat is creating. So it was really fun, so I just loved it.

So that was my summer plans.

Q. So that was after Gstaad, before the Olympics?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: It was after Gstaad, yeah. So those were just a couple of days. Then I decided to practice again.

Yeah, well, I went to Swiss tennis, practiced a couple of times with Victorija Golubic, as well. You know she's one of my best girlfriends definitely on tour. That's when this whole thing happened, when we were so happy that we were going together to the Olympics and then Belinda doesn't come. Then she's at practice with me and Martina says, yeah, well, I'm going to play with Timea. Me, I'm like, What? What? No, no. Not now. No.

Yeah, well, it was kind of strange, but then, yeah, well, Olympics, and it happened the way it happened and it was just like unreal.

Yeah, probably lost -- I mean, I had so many unbelievable moments over there, but probably lost a lot of energy, as well.

But, yeah, well, I don't know if I completed. Like I answered the question more or less.

Q. What did you learn from playing doubles with Martina?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Oh, many things. I mean, many things. For sure tennis-wise the touch, what she has or like the way she can put the ball there or here.

I mean, it's something that it's her own thing. Tactic-wise, I didn't learn much, because on myself I'm playing -- using many tactics in my singles, and I played a lot of doubles before, too.

But just now when I came back three years ago I decided to play less and less doubles, because I figured I spare my energy for singles because it's hard already to do that.

So it's not something that you can learn or, I mean, for sure she had - she still has - an unbelievable career. But I think I didn't go there to try to learn something. I went to play the Olympics, to go as far as we could, and try to create something.

I think it worked quite well.

Q. What was going through your mind as you're standing on the podium and they're giving you the medal, and, you know, the flags are going up?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: I'm going to cry. (Laughter.) Sorry.

To be honest, I still did not celebrate it really, the Olympics, so sometimes I still cannot realize it. But, you know, like growing up in Lausanne you have all the Olympic committees around. I practiced next to the IOC, the house of the IOC. You have the Olympic museum over there.

As a kid at school, every school of the region goes there to visit at least -- probably in the whole scholarship, probably at least three times the Olympic museum.

We went with friends from Hungary, for example. It's a highlight in Lausanne. You have many things to do, but for tourists, it's just amazing.

Well, I mean, for me it means like so much. I mean, I was watching the Olympics, and I would never ever really think that I would win a medal one day. That we did it together against all odds.

It was really like not something like that would just work, and it's gonna be there. Like how it happened that we ended up playing together, and then also feeling like if something is happening between us two, can we create something, trying to lift the other one up.

Like playing like next to Martina sometimes it's not easy position, as well. But I'm super proud of myself because I held her up sometimes during this event, as well. She was maybe less motivated at the beginning. She was like, Oh, crap, I cannot -- I mean, I feel like everyone is letting me down, but you're the only one who stands here with me. So, like, okay, let's do it.

I mean, it's many, many things.

So it means just a huge thing. And like we have accomplished something amazing, but myself, too. Yeah, well, I really never never ever thought that I would be, yeah, coming back home with a medal one day.

So, yeah, it really made me dream a lot when I was a kid even though tennis is not really in history of the Olympics, but -- sorry. I continue speaking. You guys know I speak a lot.

Something which was really amazing, and sometimes it was tough even to come back on tour, because over there it's some -- I mean, it's -- how you say in French? (Speaking French).

Q. Temporary.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: No. It has like no -- you're like, how do you say?

Q. Intangible? Temporal? Like it's just not... Continue.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Yeah, it's not connected to anything. Like you get there, you get to meet people, you don't know them and probably you're never going to see them again, but at least in the Village you just feel respect which is like around everyone there.

There's no aggressivity. Like really almost like -- with me everyone was nice. I mean, and I myself, probably I was shining more than usually. I was laughing more because I really felt like the energy of it.

Okay, it's only two weeks in a year or three weeks in a year and that's sad, because it should be -- every competition for me should be like that. Because you're not -- it's not like -- even in tennis we use sometimes, Oh, what are your weapons? Oh, come on, guys. You're not doing that for war. We use weapons for war. But why do we use that also in our vocabulary?

And really, at the Olympics I really felt like you meet an athlete, you just talk for five minutes or even two or you trade a pin. This is the best invention ever for myself, or for what I really think, because otherwise maybe people would be too shy to talk with each other.

But like that, you can go to any country in the world and say, Ah, Palau. Didn't even know it existed. Or Tuvalu. Where is it on the world map?

Yeah, like you get curious and then you're like, Oh, which sport are you in? What are you doing? Oh, I lost to her or I got injured. Then you really feel like it's how sad it is and how much it means to people. Then, okay, you say, bye-bye, good luck, all the best for you, and you're probably never going to meet him or her again.

But the human contact, the exchange, is just natural, simple, and it's nice. And all the images that you see from the Olympics are usually full of positive emotions of sportsmanship, of -- you try to give really your best. For sure sometimes sadness or like you lost or you didn't get the bronze medal, and there are only nice images for me.

Yes, for sure in Judo you had this poor, poor guy which did not to salute his opponent, which is like terrible. But it's one. One out of how many nice things.

Yeah, as I came back on tour it was not like -- you feel like sometimes the tension that people have in their eyes, like even on the tennis tour. You're like, Guys, I didn't do anything. Like calm down. You feel the aggressivity sometimes, which I was sincerely not feeling at the Olympics.

You go back to the Swiss house and all the other Swiss athletes, they are really like 100% sincere that they are so happy for you that you got a medal, because they know how tough it is and how much you work all year long for that and how big it means to everyone.

I really felt -- it's the first time in my life I really felt like 100% of sincerety out of people or other athletes which were like, Oh, wow. I saw that you won a medal. Oh, how amazing. Do you have it? Can I just see it?

And this like -- I think the world just should be like. Unluckily there are no Olympics every week. It wouldn't be that special probably. But it made me realize that it's, yeah, many things.

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