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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

December 30, 2018

Sam Stosur

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Q. Sam, it looks like you've been putting in a lot of hard reps the last few weeks. How has the preseason gone for you?
SAM STOSUR: It's been great. Yeah, I've put in a lot of time on the court and off the court, done some fun stuff. Yeah, it's been really enjoyable and still being able to achieve exactly what we set out to. So it's probably been I would say one of my most successful preseasons actually. So I guess being where I am, you can kind of learn from what works and what you want to try and do. But, yeah, I've mixed it up really well, so I'm really happy with starting the year with the buildup that I've been able to create for myself.

Q. What sort of fun stuff?
SAM STOSUR: I took a week off right in the middle of it. I didn't think I necessarily needed to go seven weeks straight, which is pretty long for a tennis player. So, yeah, after three weeks, went hiking and camping with some friends and did that for four or five days, took a holiday at the start of my preseason, and even in amongst everything that we were doing, we'd play some games with my fitness and make it competitive and on court did some different stuff and worked on things technically. So it was just kind of keeping it fresh and a bit new. And, yeah, I guess not necessarily any one session was exactly the same. So we were still able to do what we needed to do but keep it new and exciting.

Q. Is that important for you at this stage of your career, to change things up and sort of reinvigorate things, maybe reinvent a little bit as well?
SAM STOSUR: Yeah, I think sometimes you can get stuck kind of. You get into your routine, which is all great and we all have routines and things that you know you've gotta, I guess tick off as you go through, but it doesn't have to be dull and boring, and you walk out to the same court and the same environment and all that. And we're used to moving around, being in one place for a week and a week and a week and you get going. So I think when you can kind of have fun with that time off court and be able to set things and put things in place, that's really important, and when you've done it so many times, it does keep it a bit more interesting if you can, yeah, create a fun environment while still achieving what you want to achieve.

Q. Seems like you're enjoying the new coach. Is it something that you're going to stick with or something that you're still deciding?
SAM STOSUR: Yeah. I mean I'm really enjoying it. I did two weeks up here on the Gold Coast with Nick, and that went really well. So it was kind of like, all right, can we kind of do a little bit more, and then I went to Melbourne for three weeks, the last three, and he came down for the last one. So we've only actually done three weeks on court together, and the rest I just did with my fitness trainer everywhere, but yeah, it's been going well, and we're going to see how the summer goes. And it's not something that he was expecting to be doing, so this is very new for him. And we'll see kind of where things lie. AND his own life and business and everything else kind of has us on the go and yeah, after Aussie Open, we'll probably try and work out either we continue or can we do it, and yeah, so it's pretty open at the moment and just kind of taking it week by week.

Q. What are your goals for this season?
SAM STOSUR: I'd obviously like to get higher up in the rankings again, try and get high enough that at least you get main draw in events, and obviously this time fortunate thing in Australian I can take advantage of a couple of wild cards here and there, which is good. But yeah, definitely to get a bit higher and hopefully what I've been able to work on over the preseason with my game that's going to allow me to have more confidence in what I'm doing out on court and that's going to equate to more matches won which then takes care of itself. But yeah, just to keep playing and yeah, keep enjoying and keep trying to improve.

Q. Do you think some of these changes you've made could bring out some of your best tennis yet?
SAM STOSUR: That's the plan. There are some things that I really felt like last year was approaching even through the last few tournaments that I really needed to try and get better at. It was trying to I guess tinker and improve things as the year was kind of finishing, and it's not necessarily the easiest environment to do that when you're at tournaments and you're playing a match here and there and that sort of environment. So really knuckled down and really worked on a couple of things, which it's all going great in practice and I'm feeling really good, but obviously the ultimate test is in matches where you're under that pressure to perform and stick to those things. So I'm feeling good and confident with where my game's at, but yeah, obviously you get put to the test pretty quickly in this type of event and everyone is good and ready to go as well. So, yeah, we'll see.

Q. About the mental tiredness and the pressure and expectation, are you feeling that again ahead of this start or have you noticed any changes this year?
SAM STOSUR: No. I'm not really feeling any of that. To be honest, I think everyone else feels that for me more than what I've always felt it for myself. There's obviously different expectations or your game gets highlighted more than obviously some of the players from overseas because we're from here and everyone is keen and eager to see that, but I've said it before, there's other players that don't win a match going into an o, but that's not an issue because they're not from here and the spotlight is not on them, so you're not the only player to go in necessarily in that position. But for me I think I've been through it enough times now, I know how to handle myself, and sometimes it's easier said than done and there's moments where you find it a little bit harder, but the only real expectation for me is to try and perform at my best and do what I'm capable of, and that's probably coming from myself more than anything else, and I can be a pretty harsh critic on myself sometimes. So be a little bit nicer to myself, it might work out well.

Q. You face a qualifier in the first round. Is that a good thing given you're trying to climb up the rankings or is it possibly harder if you don't know what you're going to come up with?
SAM STOSUR: Yeah, I guess it can work both ways. It's nice playing a qualifier because obviously they're not as highly ranked, which sometimes is a good thing, but having said that, they've played three matches already to start the year feeling pretty good about themselves. They're used to the conditions, all that sort of thing, and, yeah, so it can kind of go both ways, and yeah, I don't even know who I'm playing yet, so it's kind of go out and practice, do all your general stuff again, but you can't necessarily work on anything specific for your opponent. So there's good and bad things to it, but at the end of the day I've gotta go out there and try and really stick to my game and do what I think I do best and try and put that out on the court, and no matter who I'm playing, that's gotta be the end goal, I think, for my tennis moving forward.

Q. Where do you see your strengths now? Seems like you're really focusing on play more so this year. Or do you still feel this Aussie summer, there's high expectations here?
SAM STOSUR: Well, I mean, yes, the clay court time is obviously an important one for me. I love playing on clay, and that's my favorite surface by far, but the hardcourts, I still think I can play well on hard court, too. And the women's tour, probably 80 percent of the year is on hard court, so if you don't do well there, you're going to struggle, which is unfortunately kind of where I've been at the last year or so. All you can do is keep working on things and learn from match after match after match and try and put it all into play. And yeah, the Aussie summer is not necessarily always conditions and things that I necessarily feel like I really love, but it's what you got. So you gotta try and, yeah, work on my game, and hopefully some of the things I've been trying to do is going to help that success on a hard court. And like I said, if you can't play well on hard court, then you're going to find it really hard as the year goes on.

Q. Going back to those high expectations, we were talking before about the fact that no Australian woman has won here in Brisbane yet. Is that something you'd really like to see change?
SAM STOSUR: Oh, if I won Brisbane, I'd be over the moon. That would be awesome. Or if Daria won it or Priscilla or whatever. Yeah, I mean, but I think the thing is even though we're from here, it doesn't necessarily give you a huge leg up against your opponents. Everyone is good. Everyone gets used to the heat pretty quickly. And even probably having the roof almost kind of helps the Europeans, to be honest, because it is a lot cooler in there compared to playing outside. And they've all been used to playing indoors over their preseason, and we typically don't play indoors. So, you know, it's great to be at home. We've got that crowd support, which is awesome, but, yeah, I think some of the foreigners also quite like these conditions as well. So we'll give it our best shot, and yeah, hopefully one day an Aussie will be holding the trophy.

Q. I think you and John Millman are set to be New Year's Eve double header. He plays at seven and you're to follow. What sort of special night is that for Australian tennis? It's such a big holiday here, too.
SAM STOSUR: Yeah. It'll be good fun. Yeah, I mean it solves where to go for dinner that night, so I don't have to make any reservations, which is easy, and I'll get home in time for the midnight fireworks, but no, it's nice to be playing out there. I think it's going to be a really great night. I actually don't even know who John plays, but he's always exciting to watch. I watched him at the US Open this year. And yeah, being from Brisbane as well, hopefully we're going to have a great crowd and put on a good show and hopefully get two for two.

Q. In terms of winning the US Open and that being your first Grand Slam win and then going into an off season and then coming back to Australia, I'm just kind of curious what the particular challenges are in that sort of instance? Obviously looking at Naomi, and she's in a similar situation of having to come to the Asian Pacific and having to play a Slam after that, but I think it's a little bit different because you have had a little more time?
SAM STOSUR: To me, I was really impressed with Naomi how she obviously won the US Open and then went into Asia and she won Tokyo; right? Or finals. So I thought that was a fantastic effort on her win. After I played I came back here and we had the whole celebration. I barely hit a ball for like two weeks and then went to Tokyo in the next couple of weeks and kind of struggled a bit. I just wasn't prepared and I was still kind of living on this cloud and everything was fantastic, but all of a sudden you're struggling on court results wise, even though you're still playing good play. So yeah, I think for me coming back here after the preseason and all that, you had time to obviously digest it and I guess feel comfortable with it in some ways, because it is quite a different feeling. But, again, being from here I kind of felt, well, you won the US Open, now you're playing in Australia. You should win the Aussie Open, and it's not easy. It's not necessarily -- it's obviously not a given. So I think that expectation for me was probably really elevated in 2012, and yeah, maybe that was a time where it wasn't so easy to deal with. But, you know, she's an exciting player. She plays great tennis. And like I said, if she was able to do that backing up in Tokyo, I'm sure this summer is going to be really good for her, too.

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