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WUHAN OPEN

September 25, 2018

Petra Kvitova

Wuhan, Hubei, China

P. KVITOVA/A. Krunic

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk through your first match. How do you feel the conditions were out there for you? Indoors, had to feel nice.
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, well, indoors. I loved it, right? Even I had the warmup, it was good conditions I think for tennis today. It wasn't really sunny. Nothing really interrupting the game. Maybe the rain a bit.

On the center court, was great. Nice to play there again. It's beautiful court. So I really enjoy it. I saw some fans with the Czech flag, as well, which is always nice.

About the match, definitely I'm very satisfied how I played today. I expected much. I lost her last time we played. She is playing a little bit unusual than the other players. I knew it will be difficult.

But my serve helped me a lot today. I was very pleased with that. I think I really kept everything what I had to, played aggressive, but not too much risky. Yeah, was good one.

Q. When you come back to a tournament like this one that you've played many matches at, when you first hit the practice courts and start hitting, does the ball and the court and everything feel exactly kind of how it's always felt to you here? 12 months on, do you still have to re-acclimate yourself?
PETRA KVITOVA: I think when we are changing the cities and venues every week, we are getting pretty fast those conditions. But definitely when you are coming somewhere where you know you played well before, it's always easier for the mind.

But actually when we came here, as I said, I was sick. I wasn't really feeling the best physically, which improved in the last couple of days. But we had the first practice on the center court, which is always probably the best, playing on the beautiful court, as I said already. Everything is just a little bit easier afterwards.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Aryna Sabalenka. Not to bring up the US Open match, but in general, what do you make of her fast few months? Today she got her seventh top-10 win since June.
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, it's a bit incredible. I know that she played lot of three-setters, as well. She's one of my colleagues (smiling).

But yeah, definitely I played her twice this year. I think she improved from Miami when we played, the match before. She's not making that many unforced errors as she did before.

I do remember the match from US Open, of course, unfortunately. But I think that she is a bit fearless, to say. Even she is down, she is just going for it, especially with the serve. It's her weapon, for sure.

I think mentally she's more stronger than she was before. Always probably the confident, probably the important thing in the tennis. That's what I think that she has. She just builded on it. That's probably why she's playing well. She's confident enough to facing great players.

Q. The other day you told us you're trying to conserve your energy for the matches more. How do you do that if you're not practicing a lot, if you're trying to conserve energy, how do you find the confidence on the court if you haven't spent too many hours in practice?
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, I'm pretty lucky probably that when I was born I don't -- of course, I need hours spending on the court, but not like during the events. So if it's rain, I'm not thinking, Oh, my God, I can't practice, I'm going to play very badly, something like that.

I'm probably more the match type of person than on the practices. Practice is very tiring sometimes and boring, but that's what you need to do, right, to get better.

Like right now, from the season which I have, I think that I do have the energy to play, I do probably have the confident, as well, to facing the opponents in the matches.

I think somewhere inside me, I just know that I can compete with the players, especially in the matches. Like in the practices, of course you do, but you are still thinking about some things which you want to improve. In the match, you just go there and kind of be nature, show something which you learn in the practices, which I think it's kind of going well now.

Q. I was talking with Elise Mertens, who had three different coaches this season, Cornet who is struggling to find one. Do you think it's more difficult on the women's tour to find a good coach to stay one year, two years, three years? Do you see any reasons why?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I can joke with womens it's more difficult. Maybe sometimes with the men, right (smiling)?

I think it's really tough to find the right one for you. Definitely it is. I think I did have a time when I struggled, as well. After we split with David, was difficult time for me to find kind of new one, good one. You really need to know what you need, how the coach should behave, how he should think and see your game. It's really tough to find a good one. It's something, like, when you are, I don't know, trying some dress, it needs to suit you. It's something like that. It needs to be perfect.

Q. Are there less good coaches on the women's tour?
PETRA KVITOVA: I don't think it's less good coaches on the women's tour. I don't think so. I think there are great coaches all around the world. But everyone is just different. Everyone needs something different, as well.

Sometimes they need the coach who is foreign. Sometimes they need, like, from the same country. That's how it is. They need to just going well.

Q. Do you think the older you get, the more experienced you get, is it harder to find a coach that suits you, or is it easier for you to adapt yourself to someone who is not really like you?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, with experience you know what you need. It's more tougher to find it, I think. So I think when you are, like, younger, you just have the coach, you are just going with him, or with her, doesn't matter, going with the time. You are not really thinking.

But then when you are in the stage when you know something, you have experience and everything, you just think little bit differently than the coach, then you trying to realize what you need. That's probably more difficult afterwards.

Q. Right now the conversation about depth on the women's tour has been going on for a few years now. Many coaches and players say it's deeper now than it has been in the past. Do you get the sense in your career, from when you first started on the tour to now, is it, in your opinion, deeper now than it has been?
PETRA KVITOVA: What do you mean like 'deeper talent'?

Q. That no one is surprised that No. 30 wins a tournament.
PETRA KVITOVA: I get it.

Q. The first rounds are so much more difficult now for the top seeds than maybe five years ago.
PETRA KVITOVA: Got it.

Q. Do you think that's the case? Do you think there was another time, another season in your career where you thought that might have been a tougher season?
PETRA KVITOVA: I think all of us are just getting better and better. Another season will be another tough one, maybe tougher one, for sure.

I think it's true. I think before was, like, top 20, normally you usually kind of beat top-50 players. Now we never really know. We are seeing in a Grand Slam, from the normal tournaments, from the first rounds.

I do think the level of the players are pretty close. Really doesn't matter what kind of rank it is. Like, in those matches, I think it's about one, two points sometimes when you have a breakpoint or you save the breakpoint or whatever. That's making differences in the end. Everyone knows forehand and backhand.

Yeah, I think that everyone is just getting fitter. They can play forever. It's just the small differences which you win or lose. Yeah, I think it's pretty tight, everything.

Q. Sometimes, especially at the big tournaments, at the slams, like at Wimbledon, top 10 goes out in the first week, sometimes in the press conferences I hear the questions, What the heck is going on? Why is everybody losing? Is it as surprising in the locker room when those results happen, as it feels like it's surprising from the outside?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I think it's surprising in the locker room, as well. But just from the first moment. Then, like, in couple of minutes, you say, Well, yeah, it's the tennis, it's happened, it's happened to everyone on the tour. Afterwards, it's like normal thing. It just happens, losing in the first week, the first two rounds.

But, yeah, sometimes it's like, Oh, she lost. Then it's like, Yeah, she played badly probably, didn't have a great day. So yeah, unfortunately sometimes.

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