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ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2017

Timea Bacsinszky

Paris, France

T. BACSINSZKY/M. Brengle

6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. You only lost five games in two matches. That's pretty impressive. How are you feeling on the courts?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Well, I won't lie. I feel quite good. I impressed myself as well a little bit today, as well. My composure, like, I think I went on court -- I was kind of anxious, because I saw the result of my opponent.

I saw as well that she had an amazing winning streak on clay, even though I know American clay is not exactly the same as this one.

But still, it's quite, pretty impressive to win two tournaments in a row no matter which level, ITF or not. I really respect that, and I know she qualified as well in Strasbourg. Probably she was a little tired, lost to Stosur.

But when she did beat Goerges, I was thinking, wow, Goerges is more a clay-court player. I would have thought Goerges would have win the match. I was really aware she could play very good on clay.

So I did not underestimate her at all, and I just started, like, with the tactic that I had, and, well, for ten games in a row I think it just worked fine. Then I think she got a little bit more used to it. She could read me a little bit more.

But I think at the end, I just played a really great game.

Q. Speaking of this winning ten games in a row, is it possible that maybe after winning ten games in a row you feel, like not pitiful, but maybe I'll let you win a game or something like that?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Well, it happened to me in the past. I remember exactly the match. I won't say which one. But it happened that I was playing -- I was really cruising, two easy sets. It was a couple of years ago. I felt at one point I was leading so much into the second set. My opponent could not -- and it's someone I really like, a good friend of mine -- she just could not put one foot...

Q. Say the name.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: I won't say the name. She could not put one foot in front of the other one. So it was really terrible. Then I felt, like, sorry. And at the end, like, it made my work way more complicated. And then I was less focused on my game. I was more, like, oh, I'm not gonna make this dropshot, because I don't want to humiliate anyone or something.

It was really tough. From that game, that match on, I really learned a lot. I said, Well, it's something to play good. I mean, happen to me, as well, to feel really bad on the court, because I could not do anything against my opponent.

So even this year I remember playing against Bertens in Madrid, and I felt I played really well, I really was feeling the ball pretty good, and at the end I ended up losing 6-3, 6-3 because she was playing even better.

So now with it's my 14th year professional, so I think I know one or two things. I learned, as well, like, I'm never gonna humiliate any player I know. It's not my type of, I mean, my philosophy or something. I just gonna do what I have to do, and if it ends up being ten games in a row, then good for me. Bad luck for the other one.

But I also learned that no one's going to give you anything on the professional tennis tour and probably same on any other professional sport.

It's -- yeah. I mean, just have to stay focused. That's it.

Q. Next round you could play either Cibulkova or Jabeur. Have you ever seen this last one, Jabeur playing?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Yes, I played against her. You did not check your records, huh?

Q. So do you prefer to play a player that could be unpredictable like her? I have just seen her hitting a tweener between her legs or a baseliner like Cibulkova is?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: Well, I think a tweener can happen like once or twice in a match, and it's not gonna change a lot about the final result and my point of view. But some players are gutsy enough to do it, so it means that they are comfortable with it and they feel quite well the game.

But I think I have -- I mean, honestly I have no preference knowing that they are playing right now and, I mean, I just say may the best of them win. I'm going to, anyway, prepare well to play either of them.

I'm anyway very happy to be in the third round and I'm looking forward for a great battle, or against Cibulkova or against Jabeur.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. I'm really happy you won. Nobody ever talks about you in this tournament. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? They talk about everyone but you.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: I don't really pay attention. Two years ago no one really talked about me. Last year everyone was talking about me. I don't think it has very much influence on my mindset or my engagement in my profession.

There will be times when, especially in women's tennis, there are quite a few phases where you have some players who play really well, and then there are injuries, and it comes and goes. I think I had been very much in the spotlight since 2015, and then when I won the two tournaments in Mexico in a row, I know that my personal story, there was a lot of focus on that. That really made me understand what it was to be in the spotlight, in the hot seat.

Things are quieter now. I know there are times I will be in the spotlight; other times less.

But when you make progress in a tournament, it's also part of your success. It's part of the tournament. It's part of the specifications of the job when you're a pro tennis player.

People talk or don't talk. You need to be very philosophical about who's the favorite, who's going to play later, who's going to make it to the third, who's going to make it to quarterfinals before anything has even been played.

So, you know, the journalists write their pieces. I say just let the racquet talk.

Q. How different do you need to behave between a large court or a small one? When you're on a big one you can hear a fly or a small one you can hear an ambulance or the police cars or everything.
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: It's really funny, you talk about these ten games. I was really in a bubble. I couldn't hear a thing. But of course it does drain a lot of energy. Well, not a lot, but it drains quite an amount of energy. It's really great when you talk plenty of languages, but unfortunately you understand everything everyone's saying in French, Hungarian, Swiss-German. A lot of people know I speak all of these languages. They are close by and they want to communicate.

There were some young kids there who started [Hungarian phrase] with a really bad accent. I thought, right, you win the first prize for the Roland Garros standup comedy festival.

So it was really a crappy pun. I just wanted to look up at him and say, You know what? Why don't you just shut up. People don't really realize that there is plenty of things going on on these courts.

At one point, I don't know if you will read it in tomorrow's newspapers, but they were behind the court. I don't know what they were standing up on, but they were kind of behind the court, not on the shady side, not on that side, you know, the side that's near to the other courts. With the tarps. You know, the tarps but facing towards the other courts. Whatever. You know what I'm saying.

And I don't know. It was like five guys. I don't know what they had had, if they had had a couple. They were commenting every point. You know, if they sit in front of their television and they are experts, okay. But when they're like, I don't know, like 10 feet away or 15 feet away from me, seriously? I'm not going to repeat that, because I don't want young people to hear the profanity, but I said, Come on, cut that out.

If they wanted to get themselves noticed, okay, they had done it. They got their lapel pin, and now they can just scram.

So, yes, it's tough on these small courts. So my concentration is pretty good, because it lasted, like, 40, 45 minutes. And then I think it's probably different when there is a lot of resistance on the other side. Here I felt that I had a kind of comfort zone that I had created for me. Meaning that after a while when my focus kind of slackens, I can hear people talking around me.

As I move on in the tournament, I hope I will hear people less, dear unknown people, greetings to you, and that's it.

But in any case, it all ended very well. That makes me happy.

Q. You just talked about Cagla Buyukakcay, who practices with you in Biel sometimes. What sort of a player and person is she?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: She is an adorable human being. She is just the nicest person ever. I have known her for a number of years, and she quite often comes to Biel to practice with Benny Lindor [phonetic], my physiotherapist. I hit a few balls yesterday with her at the TCP, the club that I belong to, and on the Saturday I played with her, too, before [indiscernible].

I think she probably lacks a bit of steadiness against top 100 or top 50 players, but there are phases when she goes the extra mile, and I think she has all the cards in hand to be a great player. It's also fantastic for the development of tennis in Turkey. She's the first Turkish in the top 100, the first one who managed to go through a round in a Grand Slam tournament. She's a great person.

Q. How do you manage the situation when you win these ten games quite easily and there seems to be no resistance on the other side? Is that hard to manage?
TIMEA BACSINSZKY: When I saw the result of the first round, I saw that Goerges had also won 6-1 the first set. I can't remember what the rest of the score was. But I thought, okay, I win the first set. I won the first set. But I need to start the second set properly to perhaps take a little bit of an advance, keep her underwater for as long as possible, to force her to try kind of miracle shots.

When I got to 4-0, I knew she had a tiebreak. She wanted to go really quickly. And I wasn't really in the game. I was kind of on and off. I would switch on, switch off. She won four points, four that were out. It was a bit difficult on her service, because it was difficult to weigh on her. It's actually quite tricky to play against her.

But I won a match against Errani in Beijing in late 2015, where 6-0, 2-0, two balls at 3-0, and I win, and I went up to the finals, and round 1, 6-1, 4-1, 30-Love.

So I know how fast things can change in tennis. I know that there will always be resistance on the other side, if they hadn't been resistant there would be double faults all the time, she would have picked up her bag and said okay. But that's not what happened.

So for me, never mind. I lose a game. It's not a problem. I need to kind of be on and off to focus my energy to score points, and I think I did that really well today.

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