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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2018

Harriet Dart

Wimbledon, London, England

K. PLISKOVA/H. Dart

7-6, 2-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you find that? Obviously disappointing, but a good performance?
HARRIET DART: Yeah, definitely. I think I played pretty well. It's my first time playing here in the main draw singles. Obviously disappointed to lose, but many positives to take forward.

Q. How important was the fall and what happened to that?
HARRIET DART: Yeah, I mean, it was a tricky fall. Had to get off-court treatment, as you saw. We'll assess later.

Q. Did you think you might have to retire? Was it that bad?
HARRIET DART: I mean, obviously it's tricky when you fall because you don't really know how you're going to feel. You only know in that present moment.

To be honest with you, I think I was just really focused in trying to keep continue playing. My focus was on that.

Q. You must have been really pleased, there didn't seem to be a gap at all.
HARRIET DART: Yeah, I mean, she's a great player. She's a Grand Slam finalist, a top-10 player, previous world No. 1. It was always going to be a very tricky match.

I think I showed myself well. Again, there's many positives to take from it. So yeah.

Q. Was your game plan different to kind of a normal match?
HARRIET DART: I mean, obviously against different opponents your game plan is going to change a little bit. I try and just focus more on myself, take care of those things first.

Q. Was it a thigh strain or something else that happened?
HARRIET DART: At this moment, I'm not quite sure what it is. I'll see later.

Q. Your knee seemed to bend underneath you as you went down.
HARRIET DART: It wasn't anything to do with my knee.

Q. Was that first game of the third set the turning point? I think you had three breakpoints. Just got away from you. She seemed to have more confidence and kick on.
HARRIET DART: I mean, she came out swinging. Her serve, especially on the breakpoints, she was serving very big. It was difficult for me to get any chances.

But, yeah, no, she definitely started to up her game a little bit in the third set. I couldn't quite get the score pressure on the board.

Q. I don't know whether you saw Judy Murray's comments this morning, talking about young players, female players, specifically on the tour feeling very lonely. She even said that everyone had had instances of abuse. I wondered whether you had any thoughts on whether #MeToo needed to come to tennis, what your experience is as a very young player on the tour have been?
HARRIET DART: I haven't actually seen any of her comments. Anything to do with me, I haven't had any incidents. I can only comment for myself.

Q. How do you cope with your emotions of your first Wimbledon? Do you try to compartmentalize or try to use as a motivation factor?
HARRIET DART: These are all new experiences for me. I'm just trying to grab every opportunity, take it in my stride. I think I handled the whole situation quite well. Yeah, I look forward to coming back here.

Q. Without Andy here, he normally takes a lot of the spotlight. Do the rest of you guys feel the responsibility to step up and fill that void?
HARRIET DART: I mean, everyone here, British-wise, deserves to be here. They're very capable of winning a lot of matches here. I think all of us just try to focus on ourselves rather than worry about how everyone else is doing.

Q. I think we saw you had some mates with you, perhaps saying, Believe, commit, grunt. Could you explain that to us.
HARRIET DART: I didn't realize the camera zoomed in that far. Just a few cue notes from my coach. Yeah, just believe in myself, just a few cue notes that helped me in the match.

Q. Does he want you to specifically grunt?
HARRIET DART: I think it's more that I hold my breath a lot of the time when I hit my shots. I usually grunt. It's just making sure that I'm aware of how I'm hitting the ball, with my footwork, my breathing.

Q. Am I right in thinking you also study psychology.
HARRIET DART: I do.

Q. How does that work with your tennis?
HARRIET DART: I do half the load that a usual student does. I do it via distance learning. At the moment the workload is okay. We'll see when I have to do a bit more work.

Q. What drew you to that subject?
HARRIET DART: I've been thinking about doing something degree-wise for a while. It's always something I've been interested in. Obviously I wanted to study something that I actually wanted to do rather than study something which I wasn't totally interested in.

Q. It was getting warm out there today. If it gets much hotter, the women get the opportunity to ask for a heat break, which the guys don't. Do you feel that might be a bit unfair on the men when it starts getting really warm?
HARRIET DART: I didn't actually know the men didn't have a heat rule, yeah, in place. Can't really comment about that because I didn't know that.

Yeah, I mean, the conditions are the same for everyone, so...

Q. How did you find the heat? On court it's different for you. Did you find this as hot as you played in in London?
HARRIET DART: Definitely on the grass. We've been really fortunate with the weather. Obviously the conditions play differently on the courts and stuff when it's hotter.

But, yeah, no, I mean, everyone should be quite happy that it's sunny. It's quite rare in the UK that it's hot, so you should embrace it.

Q. In terms of your studies versus your tennis, would you hope moving forward you maybe put the studies on hold because the tennis takes center stage?
HARRIET DART: My tennis is my priority. I fit my studying around it. Again, like I said, I do half a load that a usual student does. They're very flexible with me, know my situation. At the moment it's going well.

Q. You're not going to be somewhere like this if you're not trying to motor on, moving forward nicely. In one way is it a good distraction?
HARRIET DART: I think for me it helps that I can put my mind to use on something else, as well. That's why I enjoy doing it. That's why I've started doing it. That's about it really.

Q. Where is it you're studying?
HARRIET DART: I do via the Open University.

Q. Andy Murray last year led criticism of the club's scheduling on Centre Court, Court No. 1. Men's matches are more likely to be billed there. As a young female player who is presumably going to go on and play here many more times, would you like to see scheduling changed to reflect more female matches played on the bigger courts?
HARRIET DART: I mean, I suppose we have no control over the scheduling. That's what the tournament referee and organizers, I'm sure they find it also probably quite tricky to balance what matches to play.

Of course, for women's tennis, it would be nice to see a couple more matches. Again, I have no control over that, so...

Q. Obviously the prize money at Wimbledon is significant. What do you plan to spend your Â£39,000 on?
HARRIET DART: A lot of people have been saying that to me. I find it kind of a weird question because the whole year I don't play tournaments that have as much prize money as it has here. I have a lot of expenses that I incur. Week-to-week I have my travel, my flights, my food, my accommodation. If I take a coach with me, I have all my coach's expenses. For me it's just being able to get by, reinvest it into my tennis.

Q. Last year Katie Boulter said it would fund for her to have a coach with her all the time. She said the tour can be quite lonely. Is that something you would consider?
HARRIET DART: Yeah, I travel quite a lot with my coach, but not all the time. He also works at the place where I practice, so... Obviously financially it's quite difficult.

I'm not sure, I haven't done quite the sums, all the numbers to put forward in that sense. We'll see. Obviously we'll be looking to take my coach a lot more with me.

Q. How much has that match given you a thirst for coming back here, get maybe an automatic ranking next year?
HARRIET DART: Yeah, definitely my short-term goal is to try to get my ranking up. That's really what I try and focus on. Obviously would love to be back here.

This year I've been very fortunate that I had a wild card into this tournament. I was very excited. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience.

Yeah, in the near to distant future I hope to be in by direct ranking.

Q. You're a junior member. Did you play the grass courts when you were knee high to a grasshopper?
HARRIET DART: I played a couple times, but not so much on the grass. More on the indoor courts.

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