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ROLAND GARROS

May 28, 2017

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Paris, France

B. MATTEK-SANDS/E. Rodina

7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling about your singles qualifying, getting a win here?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: Yeah, no. It's been a good first week. I love Paris. I love coming here. I love the courts here. So I've been feeling really good. I'm really happy with it.

Q. You said you love the courts here. What about them stands out?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: I think they're the best red clay in the world. I mean, you know, you get to Paris, you get to Roland Garros and it's just something special here. And, you know, obviously, I've done well in doubles here, and I've had some good singles wins over the years. So it's always nice coming back.

And Paris is probably one of my favorite cities to go to in Europe, so I love being here.

Q. If I could ask you about the clay. What makes it different from the clay elsewhere and what is it about, let's say, a truer bounce than red clay elsewhere or what?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: I think it's got to be the attention to detail. I'm sure you could probably ask some people who are making the courts if there's anything, you know, to do with the certain bricks that they use for this clay and that clay.

But, you know, I think their attention to detail on every single court. I mean, you always have the guys out there taking care of it, checking up on it, so I think that has something to do with it.

But, again, you know, it's one of the biggest red clay tournaments in the world. It is the biggest one. So it's nice.

Q. I don't know if you have heard this recent controversy around Margaret Court. Comment about it?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: No, I haven't heard anything.

Q. I'll just skip that all together.
You play Kvitova next. Tell us about that match and her whole come back situation.

A. Yeah, I saw her in the locker room a couple of days ago. Gave her a big hug. It's great to see her come back. Obviously, you never want to see a player go out with something that happened like -- that happened to her.

So it's really good to see her back. She's a great girl. Obviously, an amazing player. So I'm looking forward to our match in a couple days.

Q. How did you come out of today's match physically?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: Other than not being able to eat a really big meal the whole day and having a blood sugar low right now, I feel pretty good.

You know, it was some quick points in there. I think, you know, my game style, I played pretty aggressive. So sometimes you get down quick and sometimes you get up quick, but that's my game. But I feel really good.

Q. I'm from Slovakia and I know that you were in Slovakia a few days ago. What have you done there? And another question you played KucovÃ¡ (phonetic) in Slovakia in quallies. Maybe some comments about that match?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: Yeah, she's a great player. I know she's a young player. We had a really good match. I hadn't seen her play before, but I had heard from a lot of other players that she was playing really well, so I was ready for that match. Sometimes when you don't know a player you might underestimate them going into the match, but I knew she was feeling very confident and playing very well.

But I love Slovakia. I was just in Bratislava training there. One of the coaches that I work with lives there. So I actually kind of -- I feel like it's my home away from home. So it was nice to kind of get some training days in there. They took me out to some good Slovakian restaurants. It's my second time being there, and I really, really enjoy it.

And I'm looking -- I'm probably going to be going back maybe in between French Open and Wimbledon, so it's a great spot. I love it there.

Q. Do you have some family in Slovakia? Is that correct information or not?
BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS: Well, someone has told me that my heritage is Slovakian. And I have to look at my family tree and maybe ask my grandparents, but you're not the first person to tell me that. I think maybe a few generations ago my I had relatives there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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