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BNP PARIBAS WTA FINALS SINGAPORE

October 22, 2018

Rennae Stubbs

Kallang, Singapore

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. After her match yesterday, Karolina called you the positive woman with your ability to keep her focused during the match. Is that a role you have been embracing? What have you been most happy with about her progress this week in Singapore?
RENNAE STUBBS: Being here, first of all. It's been a really long five, six weeks for her, obviously after the US Open and the victory in Tokyo was big, I think, for her to propel her to think she could make it.

So it's been a long six weeks for her, back and forth, from China to Moscow and coming back here. You weren't quite sure physically and emotionally and mentally how she was going to react to all that travel and all the stress, because it's been stressful.

I was really happy in her warmup -- actually, the practice the day before and then her warmup for the match, she was really loose and really into it. Sometimes Kaja is -- she's tall and lanky, and it takes a while to get her going. But yesterday she was really into it, and I thought, okay, she's back, like the player that I saw last year here was the player that I saw the other day in practice.

And, yeah, I think she dug really deep yesterday in particular. 10 break points that she didn't let go of. Sometimes Kaja gets a little bit negative and sort of sees the glass half empty. Yesterday I was really happy that she dug really deep on those very big points, particularly obviously in the last game.

But, yeah, just really, really pleased with how well she's hitting the ball, very comfortable on the court. She likes the court here. You know, to play someone like Wozniacki in the first round, having lost to her here last year in a really unbelievable match, yeah, I was very happy yesterday.

Q. How do you rate that performance compared to other matches against top players this year? And what's maybe the biggest thing you were most impressed by?
RENNAE STUBBS: Look, when Kaja plays against counter-punchers, sometimes it's a little bit daunting because she knows she's going to have to hit three or four great shots to win the point. But, yeah, you have to hit three or four great shots to win the point, so let's just do that.

Yesterday I was just really happy with not trying to overplay, just playing within herself. Playing within herself is very good, and that's really what she did yesterday. She didn't panic in certain situations in longer points.

So I was really just happy. I was very calm throughout the whole match. I really felt just really calm yesterday. I don't know why. She's played so much tennis in the last two months that sometimes when you play a lot of tennis and you're a little tired, it's actually better. Takes off the edge of the nerves.

She's very comfortable on that court. She's played some terrific matches out there. I think all of a sudden everything just clicked.

Q. Does she feel that the court has sort of picked up speed a bit from the last 12 months?
RENNAE STUBBS: Maybe a little bit overall, but listen, Kaja has played on so many different surfaces over the last six weeks that she doesn't know what's going on half the time. She's just happy that she has the balls that she likes, as well. Because in China they were Head balls, nothing against Head, but they're a little bit, feel almost a little dead for her, and these are the Wilson balls. They fly better, a little bit better for her serve. Obviously her ball goes through the air better.

But the court, yeah, this court really plays different spins really well. If you hit the ball flat, it stays low and flat. If you hit it with a bit of kick and a little bit of topspin, it really does bounce. The slice stays low. It's kind of a really true court to what the spin is doing.

And her serve bounces up quite high. So it's a good court surface for her. And she feels really comfortable obviously with what she did last year on this court. And with the balls, it all is a great thing for her.

As far as the speed, maybe a tad faster, but nothing that she feels is like dramatically different from last year, no.

Q. You often have a lot of notes when you come down for your interactions with her. How easy is it for you to balance being that positive voice that she hears plus giving her the advice of what you've seen and what you're bringing onto the court from what you have been watching?
RENNAE STUBBS: Yeah, I got in trouble yesterday, actually. I took my phone on the court. I usually have a pad of paper and usually write everything down, but the pad of paper is in -- this bag I have is like one of those bags, you know women, you know, these bags, you can't find anything.

And so I didn't really want to be rustling around in my bag and not watching the match, so I just thought, oh, I'll just write it on my notes on my phone, because my phone was next to me. I took that out there, and Laura Ceccarelli came and said, Rennae, you can't take the phone out on the court. I said, Sorry, Laura.

It's a balance of not wanting to forget. You've got 90 seconds, and I'm telling you right now, listen, I've played, as you guys know, a lot of tennis and I talk a lot, but bloody hell, getting the right thing out there in 90 seconds is really important. Even yesterday I ran off the court the second time, and I thought, oh, I forgot to tell her to cover that angle crosscourt. So there are things you don't want to forget, so it's really important to write it down.

But then, yeah, you're right. There's moments where you just have to react to what they're saying, and you guys hear from Kaja says. Sometimes it's a little negative. After the first set that she's played and won 6-3, it's amazing how much she still finds that one thing to be upset about. And yesterday she said she wasn't feeling the ball very well. I said, Are you kidding me? Okay, let's let that go. I didn't even dwell on it. I just said, You're joking. So let's work on this.

So you just have to bring Kaja back to the positive of what's happening out there and see the positives and what's been going on.

Last year, just to react to the first time I ever went on the court with her, playing against Venus, she won the set 6-2. Pretty happy with that. And she didn't serve great, but we were trying to direct some second serves or some serves particularly to the body, which is not one of Kaja's, she doesn't usually do that. She likes to go for the corners and hit aces. She was winning her serve comfortably.

She said, Oh, my serve. What's going on with my serve? I was, like, Well, you're not serving great, but you're serving exactly what we wanted and you're winning this set.

So it's bringing a player back to what they're doing well. A lot of players concentrate on the bad things and not the good things.

So again, yesterday, she said to me, you heard it, Oh, shit, that game, was to go a set and 4-1, two breaks. I mean, of course every player wants to be up a set and two breaks, especially when you're one of the great servers in the world. But I also said, Hello, you're up a set and a break.

So it's bringing them back to the now. Which, as a former player, I know how hard that is to do, is to forget about the fact you just had two break points, but she also was down, at that point, I think six to eight break points herself. She doesn't go, Oh, my God, I've gotten away with six break points. They never think about what they got away with. They always think about what they should have maybe had.

So it's just bringing them back to the positives, which is you're a set and a break up. This is pretty good. Yeah. As well as the tactical things. You want to make sure you get those right.

Q. You were fighting with Kiki Bertens for that eighth spot here. Can you comment on Kiki's game a bit and about the struggle to get that spot?
RENNAE STUBBS: Yeah, you know, it's funny because you sort of want to be able to fight against somebody you don't like, right? Because it fires you up a little bit more. But sadly, you can't help but like Kiki Bertens, because she's truly one of the nicest people on tour.

There was actually part of us -- I'm sure Kaja didn't care. There was part of me, Oh, poor Kiki, because I know how that feels. I have had to do it in doubles of winning a match to get into the WTA Finals. I mean, I choked one year and thankfully we ended up getting in sort of the same way. The team lost.

So I know what it feels like to have that pressure on you to win one match. I mean, you have won like 40, 50 matches in the year and you think, oh, if I'd just won that match earlier in Sydney or something, there'd be no pressure on me.

So Kiki, you know, the improvement in her game is obvious. She's moving better, the confidence is there. And because she's one of the nicest people in the world, you know, it's finding that balance of fighting as opposed to just wanting people to -- I don't know about liking her, I don't want to speak for her, but it's finding that balance of being competitor. And she found that this year, and I think her coaching situation with Raemon is amazing, and they are great friends, as well, and he's been there, as well.

I think that's important. I think for me it was tough to see them fighting. They'd see each other every week. We'd get into the elevator. It was, like, Hi, morning. Because, you know, it wasn't like you were hiding anything. It wasn't like, Oh, what's going on in the race? Everybody knew.

And then in the end, nobody needed to go to Moscow. Anyway, that's the way it goes.

Q. Since Karolina told about that you are the most positive person she knows, I wondered, this seems to be a big connection between you two, I wonder if there is a big quality that you like the most about Karolina work-wise and maybe as a personality?
RENNAE STUBBS: Yeah, it's easy for me. Yeah, it's important to be positive with her, because she is always looking at the negative. Not always, but sometimes too much.

She's a joy to be around and work with. She's a sponge. Like anything I tell her she tries. Anything I suggest, she tries. Anything I say, she's willing to do. There is never a time that she's rolled her eyes and gone, Really? Do I have to try that? Or, Oh, my God. Not once.

We had one situation in Beijing where it was the first time that she's been a little bit tough on me. I kind of said something and I wanted her to cover a certain shot. The girl did it twice, and then she went the other way. And she turned around and went (thumbs up), so it was the first time she had kind of given me a hard time as a coach. But I laughed, which was great. I was, like, Yes, I'm a real coach. I've had a player tell me off.

So she's just a great kid. I just enjoy her. If I can make her better in any way, that's all I want. I have no ego in this. I really just want her to be a better player and to get better as a player, and, you know, discover what her best really is. Because she's just such a good person to be around. That was the nice thing about Kiki and Karolina to see them going at it. They are respected and liked on tour. I love this kid. She's a good kid, yeah.

I wouldn't do it if I -- trust me, I have traveled enough. I don't want to do this anymore, but it's hard to walk away from someone like her.

Q. One characteristic of the Czech players is they tend to actually want to have Czech coaches where she's been very, very forthright and saying, I'm done with Czech coaches.
RENNAE STUBBS: For now.

Q. Do you have any insights as to why she decided to make a switch and for a female coach, in particular?
RENNAE STUBBS: You know, she's spoken about that. This is really a question that she has to answer, not me. But I would imagine that just having a change. You know, obviously with the collaboration going forward with Conchita, Spanish, very different to me in some respects, working on her footwork and speaking Spanish, which she's trying to learn, which she's terrible at.

Yeah, I don't know. I think just understanding that we have been there, both Conchie and I and understanding -- you know, females obviously understand each other a little bit more, the emotions of it. But also past players. We have been there. I know what it feels like to choke. I know what it feels like to be in a situation where I would have preferred to be up a set and 4-1. I'm not going to go out there and be hard on her. I'm going to make her realize that there's positives to where she's at.

I don't know. Obviously the Czechs all have coached each other and it's like, Well, who's coaching who now? Kind of a bit of a joke in the tour. Oh, now he's working with her.

Maybe she just wanted out of that mix. I don't know. How many more are there left? They can't sort of -- how many players can change coaches? I think she just wanted out of that situation and wanted a fresh thought process. Spanish and Australian is very different to Czech. Maybe she just wanted -- she's not young. She's not 21. This is a player that sort of has been around and knows what she wants for herself now. We will see, I guess. It's not a golden spoon yet.

Q. When you talk about trying to improve, get her to the net more, which is obviously something that you can do, what is that message and how is that message delivered, especially on the transition game? Her hands are great. She's an incredible volleyer. The tricky volleys are somehow easy for her. She's always saying she's finding herself in no-man's land and not getting up there. So how do you get her to do that?
RENNAE STUBBS: So you say she's good at the tricky volleys? Because she lets them be tricky volleys. She's just a little bit lazy, so she's got those big old long limbs and she tends to take one big step as opposed to two little ones and make the volley easier. It's teaching her, yes, you can actually hit that volley a lot easier. You don't have to make it that difficult.

I think the main thing with her volleys is trying to get it a little bit more out front, kind of like a baseball analogy, taking the ball early when the ball's coming at you. You don't let the ball play you. You go to the ball. That's just volleying 101 for me.

And also, the really big thing for transitional work coming to the net, and every player, you know, is suspect in this way, in a lot of ways, because the women hit the ball so well from the back of the court, so they don't rely on going to the net as much as they should.

It's learning to come in on the right shot. I have really been very -- not hard on her, that's not the right word, but adamant that you come in on this and not this, and this is the shot you should come in on and not that one.

That's what we worked on a lot over the summer before the US Open. I don't know if you watched her matches, but she came into the net really a lot and very well.

But it was on one certain shot and not on a certain shot. I'm not going to tell you what they are. You just have to watch her matches. Not that hard to figure out. She's coming in on the right shots now, and she's getting rewarded for it. She's starting to go, Oh, okay, I can do that, I can do that.

But you have to keep doing it and it has to become a habit of how to win points coming forward. That's really what the key is, is doing it on the right shot at the right time and having the guts to do it, because the net is like kryptonite for these women.

You can quote me on that. That's only because they hit the ball so well. Listen, if I had forehands like them, I probably would have been away from the net, as well. I had no forehand, so I had to be at the net. There you go.

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