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ROLAND GARROS

June 10, 2017

Whitney Osuigwe

Paris, France

W. OSUIGWE/C. Liu

6-4, 6-7, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations.
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Thank you.

Q. You seemed kind of placid at first, and then you kind of smiled and everything. How excited were you to win this?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I just have that face. Yeah, I was really excited. It's good that all my hard work finally paid off. Claire is a tough opponent. She took it to three. And obviously after I was up 5-1, 40-15, she kept fighting.

Q. 5-1, 40-15? The second?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Yeah.

Q. Talk about the second set. You were playing very well. You were up I think 5-3, and then she came back? So after that, talk about it. You got better in the third set pretty fast.
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Yeah, definitely momentum switched, but I was down 6-5, 40-15 actually, and I ended up winning the game. Then I was up 4-2 in the tiebreaker and momentum switched again. She took the tiebreaker.

But my first three rounds were three-setters, and I was down in most of them. I just told myself to keep fighting and I did what I did and pulled it out.

Q. Have you always liked clay or were you surprised to win? You're the first American girl to win this title since the '80s, so it's been a while.
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Well, red clay is actually my favorite surface. And I've trained on clay for a while now. Yeah, it's my favorite surface.

Q. What do you like so much about it?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: It slows the ball down so I'm able to get to more balls. I like sliding.

Q. Was it tough to play another American at all with so much on the line?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Not another American, but tough to play Claire. I mean, obviously last time at Easter Bowl, she beat me pretty bad.

Q. 1-1?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Yeah. So she's a tough player. She makes you get a lot of balls back and keep your concentration the entire time.

Q. One of the reasons you like clay, you mentioned yesterday, you have a big back swing and you were going to try and shorten it down. On clay you can take a bigger back swing. Is that one of the reasons you like it?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I mean, I think it's more the movement. I'm fast, but I can't get everything back. But on clay it allows me to get more balls back than I could on grass or hard.

Q. So how will you celebrate this one? Do you have plans?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Yeah. I think actually me and Claire are going to go into the town and we're going to go to dinner (smiling).

Q. I'm assuming you have improved a lot this year. Talk about that a little bit. Your backhand, your forehand, your serve? What's gotten better?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I mean, obviously I improved my serve. I have started opening up the court more. I have tried to come forward more. I think it's more of a mental thing.

I have tried to become more professional, work on my routine, stuff like that.

Q. You practice when you're at home, what, a couple hours a day? Three hours? Five hours a day?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I don't really have a set time. It's just the quality of it and when I feel good about it. Yeah.

Q. Just to be sure, where are you training right now? Who is your coach?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I train at IMG Academy, and my main coach is my dad, Desmond, but I work with a lot of the coaches there.

Q. I think you said yesterday none of the family is here. Have you called them? How excited were they, if you called them, and their reaction?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Yeah, I haven't gotten a chance to call them, but my mom texted me and actually my brother just called me but I can't answer it.

But, yeah, I could imagine they'd be excited.

Q. How well do you know Claire? Is she also IMG? How do you know her? Just from tennis?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I don't know if she's IMG. I'm not sure. I don't think so.

But, yeah, I just know her because I travel with the USTA a lot. So she's been on some of the trips with me. I have roomed with her a couple of times. Yeah, tennis.

Q. Were you expecting this result at 15 to win a Junior Slam?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I mean, it was one of my goals, but I didn't really have any expectations. I just kept working hard and knew the results would come.

Q. Are you going to go pro this year? Are you going to wait till next year?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: Actually, I have already turned pro. It's a decision I have made. I have been doing well this year. I think it was the right one.

Q. What will you do this summer play-wise?
WHITNEY OSUIGWE: I'm not sure. I haven't really got my tournament schedule. My dad and people around him have been helping him out with it.

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