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ROLAND GARROS

May 26, 2017

Johanna Konta

Paris, France

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please.

Q. What have you been up to since you lost in Rome? How long have you been practicing for? I believe the NTC, as well?
JOHANNA KONTA: I was, yes. So I went home the following day, and then I had a day off. Then I was training until Wednesday, at which point I came here.

It was nice to be home a bit as well. The weather was good.

Q. What's it like to have Kvitova back in a slam? Must be mixed feelings, because you have your own ambitions. Good to have someone back after such a horrific...
JOHANNA KONTA: She's in the draw? I didn't know. I knew she was hoping to play, but as I said previously, I don't look at the draw.

Well, she's back? I haven't seen her back. Actually, that's really good. I hope I actually see her now. I haven't spoken to her in a little while.

No, that's massively positive. Actually, that's really good news. That's really good news (smiling). Oh, that's so nice. Sorry. That's so nice.

Yeah, I'm happy about that. What was the other part of the question?

Q. What about your next opponent?
JOHANNA KONTA: I haven't actually played her for a couple of years. I had only played her on grass and hard, so haven't played her on this surface, either. So I think it will be going in there with quite a blank slate. Just a lot of different variables. And otherwise, again, will be mostly focusing on what I want to achieve out there and get as prepared as possible against her game.

Q. With your rise over the last couple of years, you haven't actually played this tournament that many times in your career, given your age and experience.
JOHANNA KONTA: My age, grand old age.

Q. I didn't want to go there, but... But given that, and you're playing it, what, maybe for the third time in the main draw?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yes.

Q. So as a top seed, what is that experience like to go into a slam that you don't have a ton of reps at as, you know, one of the top 10 seeds?
JOHANNA KONTA: I guess it's a situation that's slightly unique to me and something that I have experienced over the last, I guess, two years as I have been playing and playing a lot of tournaments. Been fortunate to be winning, as well, and obviously I found myself in the situation I am now. But I think it's a very nice problem to have. I feel very lucky and very fortunate with that. I'm not complaining.

I think, like I have said, I'm really enjoying this part of the season. I think it's giving me a lot of opportunity to grow as a player, as my game style on this surface, but also, as a competitor, as a person. I think it's given me a great opportunity to mature. It gives me different challenges, and I think like I have said previously, the work that I'm putting in now also I believe will transfer into the grass and also the hard and throughout the few seasons that I have.

Q. How was Buckingham Palace? Tell us about that experience.
JOHANNA KONTA: Oh, it was really, really cool. I had never been inside, and we were in the gardens area.

But, yeah, no, it was really spectacular. It was actually really, a really humbling experience, because you speak to all these young people who obviously dedicated their time, as well, to achieving what they did.

Yeah, it was really, really interesting. The way they also asked me questions, it was nice to also kind of relate my experience through tennis and what I do with theirs. So overall, it was a really cool experience.

Q. Who did you meet?
JOHANNA KONTA: So I met Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, I believe. Yes. So he was -- him and his wife were the Royal representatives, I believe. There were a number of, I guess, other award presenters going around, as well.

But I mainly spent most of my time with the group I was allocated to. I got to know those young people as much as possible.

Q. Looking at the sort of next week, ten days as a whole, what are your expectations going in here?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, they actually are very similar to every other tournament. I'm looking to apply myself the best I can. I'm looking to stay here for as long as possible.

I think as long as I feel that I kept growing and I kept improving within the matches, the match that I play, I think that's what's most important to me right now.

Q. What do you find most challenging about clay? What do you think you need to do apart from playing on it lots and lots to transfer the attributes of your game on to other surfaces?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, like you said, a big part of the challenge is the time I spend on the surface compared to the other ones.

It's not just that I haven't played much on the clay. Obviously I have played in the past, but it's the level of players that I'm playing on the surface, which I haven't had experience in.

So I think that's a time factor. However, me personally as a game style, I think, it's more of an adaptation process of just noticing how, for example, on the hard, the movement side of it and then the way you're able to take the ball early and just your general movement around the ball is slightly more straightforward than it is on the clay.

So I just need to keep adapting well movement-wise around the ball, and then also, you know, being patient enough to build, obviously the points are a bit longer here. The balls play differently off the court.

I guess, yeah, having a good mindset to just keep building in the points, as well.

Q. I remember you saying, I think it was last year, that you were in the special locker room now. Is that still...
JOHANNA KONTA: Oh, special -- I wasn't sure what you meant there for a second. Okay.

Q. Because of your ranking. Has the novelty worn off about that? Or still get a buzz? Do you feel like you belong with the top group of players now?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, so it's actually my second time here in Chatrier, the locker rooms here, because last year was my first I was accepted into the main draw here, and it was the previous year that I had qualified but I was still under Suzanne Lenglen.

So, yeah, I still -- I still had to kind of go around the locker room and just remind myself where everything was, because I had only ever experienced it once before.

But, no, I don't think the novelty has worn off. I mean, I don't think it really ever will. We've got four slams, and they are pinnacles of our tour and our careers as players so everyone looks to do their best at those events.

I think what makes this event special stays like that forever. That doesn't really change with time.

Q. What was the best match performance or the match that you were happiest with the most during the clay season? Results aside, all that.
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, I think I have actually had a few matches, last few matches that I have played, I have actually -- there has been some really good things to take from them, different things. Even my last match against Venus I was actually quite pleased with, because I don't think I started off with my best level, but I still managed to really just fight my way into the match and just tried to find a way.

Obviously she played a consistently high level, which is very hard to compete against when you aren't able to produce the same thing. But I think the way I was able to play myself into the match, I was really pleased with that.

And even my match against Laura in Madrid, I felt that was, compared to the challenges we both faced, I felt the level I produced there I was quite pleased with as well.

So in terms of the kind of matches I played, I played some great players over the last couple of weeks.

So I feel pretty happy with the level as I was able to play against on this surface. So, yeah, I think just lots to build from, and hopefully things I will be able to reuse this fortnight.

Q. I think the last time I saw you was in Romania and you talked about having to sort of learn from the process and kind of go through it. How kind of long did that take to move on from that? Was it difficult at all to put that behind you?
JOHANNA KONTA: Well, I think on a personal level I think, you know, once you get back into the routine of the tour and your own happenings, I think that goes reasonably smoothly. It was more the press side. There was -- they were more interested in talking about it than I was personally. But I think, yeah, I'm here in the present now. That's firmly in the past, and I'm looking forward to keep moving forward from that.

Q. As millions of people have pointed out, this is an incredibly open women's tournament, the most open that most people can remember. Do you think in those circumstances, when it does appear to be a lot of contenders, that the people who have actually gone deep in slams before have sort of got a built-in better chance of being the players that emerge at the business end?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think you always find a combination of those players towards the end of pretty much most slams. Whether you guys consider it an open draw or not, I think there is always the presence of a few, what you would, I guess, call surprises and others who you would, I guess, call not.

I think a lot of things are decided also on the day. I think it's proven that the depth of women's tennis is incredibly strong. The level is really high. And there's a lot of girls who are playing very, very well in the last few weeks on this surface, as well.

So I think, I don't necessarily think it's really relevant to see past Grand Slams or how past tournaments went. I think a lot of it will be decided on the day in the matches in the competition between those two players at the time.

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