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U.S. OPEN

September 3, 2018

Dominika Cibulkova

New York, NY, USA

M. KEYS/D. Cibulkova

6-1, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You really started to turn things around in the second set.
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: Yeah, but it still wasn't what I wanted and tried to do. I just couldn't get into my game. I felt like when I had a chance to go for it, I just made, like, mistakes because I was rushing. Sometimes I felt like I was just not going for it enough.

As always, match is always, like, against Keys, you know, hard for me to play my game and to get into the rhythm and just do what I do best on court.

Q. You have had success against big hitters and big servers. What is it about Madison's game that's particularly tough?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: I don't know. I want to say it's just the serve. Today I wanted to start from behind, and then I saw it's not giving me the result I want, so I just had to change something. That's how I broke her, I went closer to the court.

I wouldn't say it was about the serve. It was just in the rallies I didn't feel comfortable, couldn't find my comfortable zone, feeling balls. It was nothing like the matches before I played here.

Q. In general, what is hard about playing against Madison?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: For me, it's like I feel I'm being overpowered. And then, you know, I get few balls, I will power it, and I'm just going back. And my movement, it's not going forward. It's just going backwards. That way I just cannot play well. So this is something I tried, I wanted to do different today on the court.

But just didn't seem it was going well for me today. So maybe, you know -- I wouldn't say the serve. Today I wasn't serving great, I wasn't serving bad. She wasn't killing me from the serve. So this was a bit different today.

But I was just not there the first two, three points to do what I want. I was still on the back foot.

Q. How do you assess the Grand Slam season for you now that it's over? Does it give you optimism going into 2019?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: Yeah, I mean, I'm still not thinking about 2019. It's still pretty far. Of course, the quarterfinals of Wimbledon just give me a lot of confidence, a lot of energy. The break again I had to take because of the injury I had, so it was unfortunate.

Yeah, fourth round here, it's just great. The win against Kerber was really big, because I was doing something unusual on the court and it was really working for me and I was able to do it. Yeah, I played a great match against Su-Wei. This fourth round, it's just good.

Of course, now I'm not happy because I wanted to go forward and wanted to take a chance. I'm already in the fourth round and I know what it takes to go further.

But, yeah, unfortunately I played against Keys and she just -- I just wasn't able to play my game today.

Q. Asia is coming up soon. How do you prepare for that? Do you take anything from this into...
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: Of course. I'm supposed to play Tokyo, Wuhan, Beijing. I will see right now in the stage of my career, I just need to be really motivated to go on the tournaments. So I will see about Tokyo, Wuhan, Beijing. For sure I will go. About Tokyo, I will see. I will just have to be full of energy again as I came here.

And, yeah, this is really good boost.

Q. Does Keys' level seem like she could do what she did last year, get to a final?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: Depends who she's playing next. I don't know who she's playing next. If she will be playing Kerber today, it will be completely different match, because it's in this stage of the tournament, it's about --you know, it's what draw you get, what players you like to play, and who you can beat with your game, and who you have confidence to beat.

Yeah, she was playing well, but was just -- I never play well against her.

Q. Will you stay in the city any longer or will you head home?
DOMINIKA CIBULKOVA: I think we're going to fly out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to go home. It was almost three weeks. But finally after few years, I was able to do well at the US Open, and so when this loss will go away, I will feel good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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