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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

February 21, 2017

Karolina Pliskova

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

K. MLADENOVIC/K. Pliskova

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You never really looked comfortable out there tonight.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah, not at all (smiling).

I didn't feel like my tennis at all. The conditions here totally different compared to Doha. I just hit one day yesterday for practice.

Yeah, tough, and obviously she played well.

Q. How are the conditions different? Everyone has been talking about it. How are they different?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Well, I think it's definitely a little bit faster, especially with the balls together, the surface.

So I did even some double faults which I didn't do in Doha. So compared to there -- it's much warmer here, as well.

Q. Is it?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah. (Smiling.)

Q. Talk about how tough it was to try and come and put your mind into this tournament and be ready for it.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I don't think this was the problem. I think I was mentally like there. I was still trying, even in the second set. But I was just playing, like, really bad, so there is not much what you can do about it. Like, I still had a chance in the second set, you know, to change this to have 5-4, but yeah, she played some good points.

But I didn't play almost anything today. Few aces, and that's it.

Q. When you were practicing and you got the one hit before this match, did you kind of step out there and say, Wow, the ball -- how shocked were you with how different it was?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Actually, in the practice, not much. As I was practicing yesterday, it was a little bit colder, I would say, than today.

And I just played with my coach, so just hit few balls because I had really like busy week last week, so I didn't want to spend like five hours on the practice court.

I didn't have that feeling in the practice, but obviously match is something different, and in the points, it can be faster than in the practice sometimes.

Q. Only Hingis and Henin have won these two tournaments back to back, and they're pretty good players, aren't they? Is one of the toughest turnarounds in tennis.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I don't think so. Just I think even with the thing that I was playing the Fed Cup that week before, it's like third week for me in a row and would be the third tough week, you know.

So I was playing the whole week in Fed Cup, and then with the matches on the weekend, and then the week with Doha. So I was not really expecting this result in Doha, but it came there. That's why it didn't came here. I can't be winning everything.

Q. You just said when you're not playing well there is not much you can do. With your game and the aggressive style that you have, what can you tell yourself in the middle of the match? What can you do differently, perhaps?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Well, I didn't say there is not much what you can do, but if you are playing like this and your opponent is playing well, then you're probably gonna lose the match.

The only thing what I can do is just try to hold my serve, which I didn't do the first set and the beginning of the second set, as well. If I would hold it at least 2-All, 3-All, there was always some chances on the serve, you know, even in the last game.

But I lost it quite early, so that was the problem.

Q. When David came down for the coaching timeout, you both were quite chatty back and forth. Can you just let us know what the conversation was about.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah, I was just saying, I'm missing too much, especially the returns, especially my forehand. And obviously the serve was not that good as was last two weeks.

I was little disappointed about it. He was just basically saying, yeah, some tactic stuff about the serving, where to serve or not, and that she's, like, more aggressive than me. So I was just trying to change it, you know, so she doesn't have that much time on the forehand.

And then stepping up to the court on her second serve, but she was serving over 160 every second serve, so plus to her.

Q. Obviously it's a little too soon after this match, but you still have a 15-2 record in like the first seven weeks of the season. How do you put that in perspective? And how pleased are you with the start of the season?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Well, definitely good. I don't want to be disappointed about this match, because I won so many matches already this year. I'm just happy about it, and this was just one bad tournament, I would say.

So there is not a lot of things to improve, and since to Indian Wells I have some time off for practicing. So excited about it. And, yeah, I'm going to forget about this one, like, really fast (smiling).

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