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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2019

Petra Kvitova

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. From a point of our general perspective, it looks amazing final, because you guys not only playing for the title but also playing for the No. 1 spot. But from the athletes' point of view, does it affect you guys, or it's just the final?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, from my side, doesn't really affect me at all. I'm here to play in the final of the major, and that's how I do have my mindset. If that happen, it happen. It will just be very nice bonus of it, but I'm really thinking about the title only.

Q. As this two weeks has kind of unfolded, how different has this fortnight been to the two fortnights you had in Wimbledon in '11, '14? How different does this feel?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I don't think that's, like, that big differences. You know, it's a Grand Slam. You do have your nerves there, and doesn't matter what happen. You are just a bit more like stressed than normally you are when you are at home and, I don't know, practicing and whatever. That's how it is.

But I don't think it's anything like very special. I have been in the final of the Grand Slam, but this is a little bit different. I'm not playing on the grass, but I think it's -- it's just probably a little bit more special because it's after everything I have been through. So I think it's -- it's just different, but I don't think it's, like, more nervous.

Q. Tactically, what are the keys to the match, do you think?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I don't know yet. I wasn't really focusing on it yet. We'll see.

But definitely I need to play my best tennis, what I can say. I think Naomi is on fire. She's in very good form. She's an aggressive player, which I am, as well. So I think it will be about who gonna take the first point and push the other a little bit.

Q. All through your career you have used a sports psychologist quite a lot. Just wondering if you're still using the same one and if you have been talking to him here and if what he tells you is different or is more important before a final than it is at any other time?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, to be honest, I do have my mental coach, but I wasn't really talking with him this month (smiling). I'm not very sure.

Yeah, I think sometimes it's like on the wave and I don't really feel like I need to talk with him.

Q. Is that a good thing?
PETRA KVITOVA: It's very good thing.

Q. What have you proved to yourself by getting this far?
PETRA KVITOVA: For sure that I am able to do that. You know, there are kind of moments and days where I didn't really think very positively that I can be in the final of the Grand Slam anymore. It took me a little while, five years to get there, which is not really easy.

That's probably the best thing that I really proved, that I didn't give up. That's probably the best.

Q. You talked about having stress throughout a slam. During the two weeks, are you able to kind of, when you go back to the hotel, can you switch off, or because of kind of how important this is, is there a level of stress like the whole time?
PETRA KVITOVA: No, I'm really trying to be relaxed in the days off. I'm not hitting on the days off, either. I'm playing only matches (smiling).

So I think it's helping me, as well, to kind of have mind a little bit more free. I needed those days off after Sydney, as well, that I really need to recovery and have a kind of more energy for the matches. In that routine, we stayed with. That's I think is really helping me a bit.

Q. Since US Open you started, or is this special because of all the tennis you played the week before?
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, actually in the US Open I didn't hit in the days off. Then I'm not very sure if the French Open was different. I think I practiced in the days off in the French Open.

But I don't think it's kind of always the same. It's always depends how I feel, how my body feels, and how the tennis looks like.

Q. You were relatively young when you won your first Grand Slam title. Do you have vivid recollections of that? Also, does that help you get inside your opponent's head a little bit, considering her youth and relatively short time on the tour?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I think it's took me a while to get used to, be Grand Slam champion in the time when I won it when I was 21. For me, it was kind of surprised to be. I didn't really know what everything brings and how the attention is afterwards and the pressure. Took me three years to win another title, which was much more sweeter for me, and I really enjoy it a bit more.

I don't know. I don't think that they are thinking same like me. Everybody is just different. I probably never really expect myself to winning Grand Slam before when I started to play tennis, so I think the mindset is just a little bit different.

Q. The last two years, if there was a point that was lower than any other, can you tell us what it was and what you went through at that time?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I think there were a few of them. I think was one of them just last year when I lost to Petkovic in my first round here, which I felt really terrible. Of course losing in Wimbledon was hurting a lot, as well, at the time.

I think those two losses were really tough for me. Was especially in the Grand Slams, of course. The feeling how I felt wasn't really nice. Sometimes I'm probably too stressed and it's not really great.

Q. Did you ever think of quitting at that time?
PETRA KVITOVA: No, I didn't. No, I didn't. You know, of course that I had a great season last year, and it will be very bad if I gonna think about quitting. I'm kind of person who never really give up, so would be very bad.

Q. Everyone knows your story and is very amazed how far you have come back to where you are now. Can you feel that when you go out on court, the warmth from the crowds?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I don't know. They are not screaming it (smiling).

It's tough to say. Hopefully I do have some support over there. Maybe they don't really like me because I beat Ash, but hopefully I can find some of them to be on my side.

I don't know. I mean, of course they are -- most of them, they are there for beautiful tennis and they are really supporting the tennis. Hopefully I gonna feeling tomorrow night.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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