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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

December 30, 2018

David Taylor

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Q. So how are things with Elise?
DAVID TAYLOR: Good! So far. Yeah, started in October. Did the Asian swing, preseason. It worked out well for me. I live in Europe. She lives in Europe. Yeah. Very ambitious player, loves tennis, would do anything to improve. Yeah, incredibly hard worker. Yeah, not interested in being a star, more interested in being a good player, and I think that's for me very important.

Q. From just in terms of she had a bunch of series of coaches last year.
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. And things like that. So when you were talking to her about that, about coming on, I mean did she give you any insight a little bit into kind of what was going on in her mind with respect to picking a coach?
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah. She's a very cerebral player. She's very student just very picky with her coaching. So it was a good matchup. I definitely like to work out, definitely want a player to improve technically, tactically. So all these things made it a pretty good match straightaway, but yeah, she was very particular in what she wanted, which I liked. And I think that's, yeah, that's how you have to be when you're choosing a coach and also choosing a player.

Q. What have you kind of learned about her from coaching against her?
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah. I think the main thing I've learned is I can see why she's done so well. And kind of quietly. Like she's 12 in the world. She's quite young. But, yeah, not always top of the list when people talk about rising players, but incredibly ranking improvement over the years and already won a bunch of tournaments. But I think that's because she's really all about the tennis and not so much about the off-court activities. And, again, that just matches my personality as well.

Q. I remember were you still with Sam when they brought in on-court coaching on the WTA?
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah. I was just -- I was thinking that today, like I never have gone out here ever and done on-court coaching, and this time I will. I still don't think -- the Grand Slams probably would rather the player find the solution themselves because that's what they're going to have to do. Everyone at that level wants to do well in the Grand Slam. I mean someone like Elise, it's 100 percent every single match of the year. We just came from an exhibition in Hawaii. I couldn't believe, it was the same as if it was a Grand Slam. So she's a little different. But I think if it's not going to be in the Grand Slams, I'm still not a huge supporter of it, to be honest. But things are changing so much in the Grand Slams, all four Grand Slams have different scoring now in final sets. The Australian Open seems to be the most ambitious in terms of wanting to make changes in coaching. Maybe them and America. So maybe it's not too long before we will see it in the Australian Open.

I mean Craig loves to in his mind move forward, and yeah, maybe the crowd -- people want to see it, but Australia will be the first and I think it will come in.

Q. Across the tour, is that presumably enough of the players would like for the rule to go forward?
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we all know it's for television. It's all for entertainment. I mean the WTA have said it's for the betterment of tennis, and this is not true, and I believe that. It's definitely to increase -- people want to see the dialogue, because I've often said I'll do it if I didn't have to put a microphone in. And they're like, what's the point of that. And yeah, it's like we're at Kim Clijsters Academy. That's where Elise trains, and we talked about on-court coaching, and she's so against it. But I guess things change quickly, but you still see a majority of a lot of players don't like it, and often very good ones. And then you have the incident at the US Open with Serena, but he didn't do anything that's not done every single match. Really. I do that. So, yeah, I don't know where it's going to end up, but I think Australia will bring it in, maybe even next year.

Q. And this week will Elise fly solo?
DAVID TAYLOR: No. I'll be on there. Get more value for the salary, I don't know, but yeah, she likes it. Yeah, but as I said, I would like to get to the point where she doesn't call me out, because I feel like someone like her who really we do an incredible amount of homework for each match, so I would like her to be able to process that information and problem solve. Yeah, look at Wozniacki, she was a big believer in on-court coaching, and eventually problem solved and won the Grand Slam. And it took probably like for how good a player she is, probably took her longer than she would have liked and possibly if she hadn't had on-court coaching maybe would have made a difference before that. But at the end of the day at Grand Slam it's all about problem solving and yeah, I think that's why I don't like it so much, yeah.

Q. What do you make of the Aussie Open and no longer playing out that --
DAVID TAYLOR: I'm a traditionalist.

Q. I get that sense.
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah, I'm getting old. But I asked Elise, and she said she likes the idea because it's more fair if she played that match and then the next day. Yeah, so I understand that point. But, I don't know. Yeah, I think those matches, we all remember them. Must be unbelievable for ratings, for television, and so I'm a bit surprised actually that they made that decision. Probably it's true that the players did want it.

What do the players say? I'm actually not sure. But they said the players said they wanted it. Correct? That's the answer, isn't it?

Q. It's three, one and five.
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah. Elise she was pretty clear, pretty quick.

Q. Is there any sense, do you think, though, that especially when it comes to the Slam level where the guys are playing best of five, the women are playing best of three, so this is a rule, especially with everything that happened at Wimbledon last year and all the marathon matches, that it's a rule that's supposed to apply to the men, but in so doing they had to put it into the women, but like Halep, Kerber played those three sets. I mean it has actually never threatened the women.
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah. But I suppose there's no way you could do it and not do it for the women.

Q. Right.
DAVID TAYLOR: But I think it's not an issue with the women, yeah. Correct. That's a very good point. Didn't affect Halep, didn't affect, yeah, Kerber. Yeah. Yeah. It would be a bit sad. But then again, like remember tennis didn't have any tiebreakers at all. And they were like, that's a great idea. So maybe in 20 years everyone will think it's normal as well.

I do think, though, at the US Open when it's just a normal tiebreak, that's just unfair. Like a let court -- you're out there five hours for the men, a let court could be that's one and done. First of ten is a bit different. It's a lot longer than first of seven. Yeah. Do you like it?

Q. No, but I'm not the demographic they're after either.
DAVID TAYLOR: No. That's correct. But I'm sure, like the old Australians who, the famous Australians wouldn't like it either. Do you like it? You're not that demographic.

Q. No. My favored scoring is best of three played out.
DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. For both. I'm not a big best of five person. But best of three played to the end. I think that's the fairest.
DAVID TAYLOR: But other sports, too, like swimming, Olympics, the longest female event is 800 meters. The men is 1500 meters. I had a look once, we had a debate about it. There are other sports. But I don't see why. Like women are equally capable in my opinion. They used to have the WTA Championships best of five sets, and Hingis when I was a sparring partner for her, she told me she played five sets with Graf, I think it was. So, yeah, they're willing to do it.

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