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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 16, 2018

Simona Halep

Indian Wells, California

N. OSAKA/S. Halep

6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Just how tough was it out there in terms of the conditions? It was quite cold and windy and all of that.
SIMONA HALEP: Yeah, I didn't feel the ball at all. I couldn't concentrate. I was out of the game today.

Q. What do you think caused some of that distraction for you?
SIMONA HALEP: I'm not used to play that late, this tournament I didn't play. So it was long day to wait, to play, but we were in the same position. So I just was not ready.

Q. What was it about your game today that was difficult to deal with?
SIMONA HALEP: To feel the ball. I missed a lot, and I didn't play what I had to play.

Q. Do you think there is anything you could have done differently to prepare to play that late?
SIMONA HALEP: Not really. I tried my best to be ready to play the match. I don't find excuses. I just explain what it happened.

I just was not ready, and I played wrong.

Q. What are some of the challenges that you face when you have -- when you are the last match of the day in terms of how do you judge when to eat, especially with a long match before you?
SIMONA HALEP: Yeah, I tried to do the best things. I did. I just lost today.

She was better. She was more prepared. And she was, you know, ready to play and ready to win the match. I was not.

Q. Aside from today, you had a very strong run here, though. What is the positive that you're taking to Miami?
SIMONA HALEP: Well, the big positive is that I played semis after so many weeks off, after a tough injury.

So I'm not going to destroy this tournament just for this match. It is tough, of course, but I will shake it off and tomorrow is a new day, for sure.

Q. Talking about not being able to feel the ball, would you say this is the first match this year that you felt that on court or you felt it in other matches and could just work it out?
SIMONA HALEP: No. When I came here, I didn't feel ball 100% because I was not practicing that much before tournament.

But today was maybe the weather a little bit different, and I was not used to it.

Q. Are you surprised to see two 20-year-olds in a tournament this big?
SIMONA HALEP: Not really. Because Osaka is a strong player and she's playing really well. I played in Melbourne against her, so I knew that she can make a good match.

Also Kasatkina is playing well here, helps everything for her, because she's rolling the ball very well. She's playing with topspin.

So both of them deserve to be in the final.

Q. Not that you're old by any stretch of the imagination, but can you remember what it was like at 20 to sort of try and deal with matches of that kind of importance?
SIMONA HALEP: Can you repeat, please?

Q. Not that you're old, but when you were 20, did you find it as easy to deal with big matches and big events like this?
SIMONA HALEP: Yeah, I think it's easier at the beginning, because you have no pressure and you play without thinking that much, because you are in the semis, you are 20 years old.

So I have been in this position and always the big matches I played well. But doesn't mean that, you know -- today she was better than me, definitely.

Q. Normally you are very good at reading serve, but today she served differently or just...
SIMONA HALEP: No, my head was not ready to play, and I couldn't concentrate. I played okay until 4-3, but then I just went out. I don't know why. I just lost my concentration.

Q. Did you watch any of the first match?
SIMONA HALEP: Yeah, I watched.

Q. Did you have any thoughts on it? No opinion?
SIMONA HALEP: They played really well, and Venus didn't give up, which I admire.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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