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HENGQIN LIFE WTA ELITE TROPHY ZHUHAI

October 31, 2018

Daria Kasatkina

Zhuhai, China

M. KEYS/D. Kasatkina

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Yesterday you said that the tournament schedule sucks.
DARIA KASATKINA: Yes.

Q. I mean, you kind of looked pretty tired today. Does that obviously still apply?
DARIA KASATKINA: Yeah. I mean, if they just want to pull me out from the tournament, they made a very good job, because in less than 24 hours, I played two matches. And the girls are not playing tomorrow. They're playing Friday. Yeah, I was supposed to play two matches in less than 24 hours.

So nothing I can say. Nothing I can do. I was fighting. I did everything I could. I give more than 100 percent of my abilities. So this is a professional sport.

Q. With one win now and one defeat, it's kind of a waiting game for the next couple of days. That must be a strange experience to be in?
DARIA KASATKINA: Yeah, also I have to wait, like, two days here. I have to stay until the last match on Saturday. Otherwise they will cut 50 percent of my prize money. So pretty fair, I guess.

Yeah, it is how it is. I had this experience now in Singapore, to just go and sign and wait for the matches. So I will do the same here.

I will start my vacation in Zhuhai. Pretty exciting.

Q. You just mentioned that actually you wouldn't have games during the next two days. Do you have any plan to go around in Zhuhai, for example to go around for some food or go somewhere? Any plans?
DARIA KASATKINA: I have no idea what to do in Zhuhai. To be honest, I think tomorrow I will just lay in my room, not be able to do anything, not to think about anything because I already feel like I'm completely dead.

Q. We know that among the WTA players, there have been many quite strong players, especially in terms of their skills and technics. Can you comment on your own skills and technics to say which part of your skills and technics that you're very happy with and which part you could further improve?
DARIA KASATKINA: So you want me to give you the plan how to beat me, right?

Okay. I mean, you go.

Q. Can you stop and just reflect on 2018 and your season? What you are the most proud about for this season?
DARIA KASATKINA: I mean, it's the best season of my career so far, so of course I'm happy. There was a lot of ups and downs, but at the end, I spoke with my coach and my team, and it was a really good season. They say they are proud of me. I'm proud of them because they're so patient about me.

About the moments, I mean, I think the best moment of the season was the Kremlin Cup, for sure. Even I had good finals this year, like in Indian Wells and Dubai. I think the Kremlin Cup was, like, the happiest of this year.

Q. In addition to that, looking back on this year, what about this year do you take with you out of this year as motivation into next year?
DARIA KASATKINA: All the finals I lose, first of all. I had good results, but also, I mean, there's hundred more times more things to improve, of course. And this is the main situation always.

For me, just to be better. Even if I play a good match, almost perfect match, I'm always looking for the 'almost.'

I'm just 21 and whole career is in front of me. I think my coach, he has a lot of things to talk about to improve.

But, I mean, the moment when I will -- when I will say I have nothing to improve, then I think I can quit tennis, because at this moment you can say you're not passionate anymore about your job.

Q. So we have known that actually among the top Russian players, especially the single players, in tennis, a lot of them, after they had gained some good ranking or titles in singles, they would try doubles, including Makarova and Vesnina. So you have gained quite the ranking in singles already. Do you have any plans to find a partner in the future to actually play the doubles, to have a better ranking in doubles at all? Do you have such a plan?
DARIA KASATKINA: I tried to play doubles. I think I was even top 15 at one moment. But now I don't really like to play doubles. It also takes a lot of energy. For the moment, I try to focus 100 percent on singles. Maybe one moment I will change my mind, but now I'm completely focused on singles.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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