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NATURE VALLEY CLASSIC

June 21, 2019

Julia Goerges

Birmingham, England

J. GOERGES/Y. Putintseva

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How excited are you to be through to your first semifinal here in Birmingham?
JULIA GOERGES: Very excited, because I think today was my best match throughout the week, and I felt like I'm improving match by match, which is always nice to see. Especially I was very happy the way my serve worked today.

Q. You talked yesterday about being aggressive and picking the right moments to go for your shots. Do you feel that's what you did today?
JULIA GOERGES: Yeah, I was very patient and waiting for my opportunities, but when there was one, I made really less unforced errors and I just really went for it. So I can be very happy with that.

Q. Is there anything for you to work on, apart from you don't have time to work on anything before the next round, but anything you'll be looking to do a little bit better for the next round?
JULIA GOERGES: Well, first of all, tomorrow will be completely different game style, as well. I think Petra has a little bit more of an aggressive part of her serve than Yulia today. She's taller, Petra.

I think overall I don't need to focus on my opponent that much, just more on my game, trying to serve well, trying to be aggressive, the same what I did today.

But I think the pace will be a little bit different tomorrow. Well, we'll see how it goes (smiling).

Q. How much did it help you today that you've never lost a set to Yulia before you played her today? And you kept that record, obviously.
JULIA GOERGES: Well, I think that's just a little mental aspect in the back of your head that you know you have been successful against her, and I just remembered what I've done at that time to be successful, so I tried it again today, which never means that it's gonna work and work out that well again, but just, you know, there are always matchups where one player maybe likes it a bit more to face the other one.

I think that's, with her, a little bit the case, but, well, every match starts from zero, so you never know how it's gonna end. But I think in general I did a good job.

Q. Do you feel like perhaps your strengths against her are highlighted even more on grass?
JULIA GOERGES: Yeah, probably. If I serve well, I know it's tough for everyone who I'm facing. It's one of my biggest weapons.

If I strike the ball normal, I think has pretty good pace already, so I don't need to go crazy sometimes with it. But it's all about legs, it's about movement, it's about little parts of the game. If I do that well, I know how dangerous I am.

Q. How important is it when you're playing doubles and singles, especially when the weather can be a little bit iffy in England?
JULIA GOERGES: Well, I think here on grass it doesn't really matter that much, because you have sometimes short matches in doubles and it's not that intense that it's probably the singles.

If I play doubles here, it's all about getting your rhythm on grass. And, well, we know England can be crazy with the weather, but I think we have done a good job with the schedule with singles and doubles, and I think Tony did a terrific job there getting it out of our way, as well, so we had two days off for doubles and just to prepare on the singles, and then tomorrow first singles again and then doubles. It was not really crazy, the schedule.

Q. From your perspective, Ash, a lot of focus on her, how do you think she's coped with, first, Roland Garros, and what were your thoughts on her win?
JULIA GOERGES: Oh, well, she's very relaxed and very easygoing. Not just after Roland Garros but just in general she's very relaxed. You can have a lot of fun with her.

Well, we are just enjoying the time we have on court together. We have never played together. It was always a goal of us. It took quite a while to get together on court. But now the time we're having it's pretty fun. We are almost practicing on every tournament we are going to.

And just in general, she didn't change one millimeter. So for me it's really nice hanging out with her, but it was the same before, as well.

Q. Did you see that win coming at Roland Garros?
JULIA GOERGES: I called it from the quarters to my team (smiling). I said, She will be the one who is lifting the trophy at the end. Well, if she does -- when you see all the matchups coming, I think from the game style she plays, it suited her very well. You still need to take it at the end, and I think she did it in a very good style.

Q. What are you enjoying most about your game at the moment?
JULIA GOERGES: Well, I didn't enjoy it that much in the first round, because I wasn't playing the way I wanted to play.

No, now from one match to the other, I find my rhythm and my feet a little bit better on the grass, and if I play it well, it can be really fun, I think, on grass court.

So, no, overall if I'm aggressive and play the way I really want to play, and even though sometimes you make mistakes but you do the right things, that makes me happy.

Q. What are you enjoying away from the tennis court?
JULIA GOERGES: So much I didn't do, actually. Well, it's a late night today again, so we're going to stay in the hotel having some food there, but we did walk around a little bit the other day just to restaurants and just through the Mailbox and everything what you have there.

But you know how it is. When the weather is not really well, you try to get all the practices in you want to have on grass before, so it was not really the time what I wanted to have. It was a bit later in the evening. So usually I do two sessions a little bit earlier to get it out of the way and then have some coffee and enjoying the weather, which was not the case in the beginning, but I'm glad how it ended up now here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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