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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 5, 2018

Johanna Konta

Wimbledon, London, England

D. CIBULKOVA/J. Konta

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you feel like it's getting the tough end of a stick when you are playing a woman who is ranked 32 who would normally be avoiding the seeds in the first two rounds?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, obviously on paper it definitely looks like that. In reality she's a very good player. She demonstrated today. I think she played pretty incredibly well.

So obviously it's always tough to have a tough match like that. However, there's a lot of players who aren't on the seeding list who are equally tough to play. I wouldn't say it's tougher because she would have been seeded. I think it's just tough because she's a great player.

Q. What are the particular challenges she throws up for you?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I think she's very feisty in the way she plays. She brings a lot out of herself I think. With each match she plays, very, very physical, very present, in her mannerisms and the way she fights on court.

When she's playing well, I think she goes for her shots very much so. She looks to dictate. When she's playing well, she plays incredibly freely. I mean, she was hitting winners from five meters behind the baseline kind of thing. She was obviously seeing the ball very well and feeling very good in the way she wanted to play. I found it very difficult to really get a foothold into the match. That was a lot to do with how she played.

Q. Seemed to me there was an exchange between you and the umpire early in the second set. Were you unhappy about her moving as you were about to serve?
JOHANNA KONTA: No, no. It was actually to do with the way she plays, she's very intense. She was slapping her thigh. It was like a clapping. I just asked the umpire if it would be the same -- is it the same if someone else from externally in the crowd would clap in between first and second serves. That was more what was bothering me.

The umpire had a word with her and she stopped. She doesn't do it in a malicious way. She does it to pump herself up. It was nothing more than that.

Q. What did you think of the atmosphere today? The court was very, very empty when you came on. Compared to last year against Vekic, when it was going crazy, it felt kind of flat in there.
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I'm not sure. At the end of the match it was quite full. I think the crowd also need a break, need to have some food, especially after a men's match. They already watched a match. I'm sure they were hungry. Some needed to go to the toilet.

I think they can be forgiven for not staying there all the way through. At the end of the match, it was quite full, I thought. I felt a lot of support. I didn't really pay too much attention to that.

Q. Do you think expectations of fans and the media, however hard you try to block it out, did have an effect on you at Wimbledon this year?
JOHANNA KONTA: No, not at all. Because, again, like I keep saying, I'm here to satisfy my own expectations, and I'm very clear on where I am in my development, where I am with my level. I did the best that I could. I lost to a very good player today.

No, I love playing here. I will love it next year. I will love it for however many more years I get to play. That is regardless of what external factors or media people say about me because that's something that's very much out of my control.

Q. You talked about how well she played. How would you assess how you played? You didn't seem to be playing badly. You just came up against someone that was in really top form.
JOHANNA KONTA: I think you answered your own question there (laughter), which is exactly how I felt. I felt there were actually some things that I did quite well. I thought I served actually quite decently. I felt I adjusted also my positioning to how she was serving.

I thought I adapted reasonably well to try to really get into the match, to try and ask her the questions of maybe her dropping her level, of me kind of being there ready when she did.

I don't think she did at all, which made it quite difficult for me to get any momentum. I think she served very well in terms of her placement. I mean, she obviously doesn't have a big serve in terms of pace, but she placed it incredibly well today. Even with my adjustments, I still struggled to find a good rhythm and just a good hit on the ball.

Also within the points, I think she -- I mean, I think she made incredibly few errors. With also the pace and the margin she was playing with, I think she played very, very well.

I didn't have as much of a say in the match as I would like. I will just keep working on whenever I come up against a player who's playing very well like that on the day to just keep trying to do as much as I can to get in there in any way possible.

Q. Sam Smith on the TV said she thought the club had done Cibulkova a favor because they fired her up. Sam said this is the best she saw Cibulkova play all year. What do you think of that verdict?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I haven't watched so many matches of her in this past year. All I can say is this is the best that she's played against me that I've played her. She really played very well.

I think Domi really strives on competitiveness. She does fire herself up. That's why she has been I think No. 4 in the world. That's why she won Singapore. That's why she's been a Grand Slam finalist. She's someone who fights and competes very, very hard.

When you couple that with when she plays well, she's very hard to beat. I came up against kind of a perfect storm from her today.

Q. There's a chance you might lose sort of your seeding for future slams after this. How concerning is that?
JOHANNA KONTA: I was actually just going to say I hope I can deal with it as well as Domi does.

To be honest, I think this Wimbledon is another demonstration of how seeding is not the be all, end all. The depth we have in the women's game, how players can play very well in any certain match, I am not terribly worried of losing a number next to my name.

Q. Generally how do you compare it with a year ago, your game?
JOHANNA KONTA: I don't compare it with a year ago. I'm in a different place with different challenges. Yeah, basically I'm in a different place. I'm appreciating full how I am working now, how I'm competing now, trying to build on this now.

I'm not living in the past.

Q. Do you believe you've maybe regressed since last year?
JOHANNA KONTA: I actually haven't regressed. I think last year I don't think I added as much to my game as I would have liked. That hurt me towards the end of the year.

This year, I actually feel like I'm heading in the direction I want to be heading in. I think I'm improving. I think sooner or later those results will come. If they don't, they don't. But I'm happy with where I am in my career and with the work I'm doing.

Q. How are you improving? What areas do you feel you're improving in?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think I'm clearer on the way I want to play. I think I'm clearer with the shot selection that I want to do. I think I'm getting fitter. I think, yeah, I'm moving forward more, which is something that I've always wanted to do. Really work to be able to do that better.

Yeah, but most importantly I think I'm clear on the way I want to play.

Q. What is your sort of program the rest of the summer? I'm wondering, having obviously now a lot of these points coming off, if that might kind of free you up a bit?
JOHANNA KONTA: I was quite free before (smiling).

Q. Clearly you're not now defending a whole mass of points like you have. Wondering if it's been on your mind the past couple months and now it's over?
JOHANNA KONTA: You guys have asked me this question quite a lot. It hasn't. I know it's been on your minds, but it really hasn't been on mind.

Like I've said, tennis is a really lucky sport in the sense that we get to compete so much, we get to play a tournament literally every week if we want to.

Obviously there's more points up for grabs in slams and bigger tournaments. However, every week is an opportunity to perform. Every week is an opportunity to gain points.

I play the sport to compete and to compete hard, to go deep into tournaments, try to make it to the end and win titles. That's what I want to do. Obviously I dream of winning Grand Slams. But every title is an opportunity to win it.

I'm not going to be playing the second half of the year any different than I played the first half of the year. I'd like to think that I'm competing better with each match that I've played. On paper obviously it's an opportunity for me to not lose points and just gain. However, how I approach it personally, it's no different. Yeah, it's not different for me.

Q. Where will you be going?
JOHANNA KONTA: San Jose, which is the old Stanford, renamed. Different place than Stanford, but same week. Montreal, Cincinnati, New Haven, US Open.

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