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NATURE VALLEY CLASSIC

June 23, 2019

Julia Goerges

Birmingham, England

A. BARTY/J. GOERGES

6-3, 7-5

Q. Good to see you smiling. It was an emotional moment for you when you were thanking Ash -- sorry, congratulating her for getting the No. 1. Can you just walk through why that kind of brought the emotions out?
JULIA GOERGES: Well, Ash and I have a long story already going on, but when Ash was 15 years old at French Open she got a wildcard and I was always like talking to her, we had a lot of fun moments already and then she retired again.

I always thought she's never going to stop, she will come back one day because she loves the sport so much, but she just had enough at that time. But I've always said to her, "Hey, that wasn't it, you are going to come back" and we stayed always in contact over that years as well when she was still playing cricket and, for me, to be able to share this moment with her, was just something special and if I had to choose to lose someone today to become the No. 1, I would pick her definitely. That is why it was very emotional for me.

Q. You looked like you were getting a foothold back in the second set, so can you just talk us through from 4-2 things started to maybe drift away?
JULIA GOERGES: Overall, I think it was a very high-quality match for grass court. There were just a few points here and there where I made a little bit too many mistakes, but while she also pushed me to do that and to just go a little bit more and more. I knew I had to be aggressive, so unforced errors belonged to my game, but she forced me to know do more and more, especially she was very well in the defence as well today.

I know what is coming when I approached the net, but sometimes it is not so easy to make the best out of it, you always try but she's a very tricky player and she has good eyes for the court.

So I just gave it all I had and I thought I did a very good job of how I came back in the second set, opened up my opportunities, but then you could see that she has a lot of confidence from the last year that she really tried to step it up another time with a good serve and holding especially in the 5-4 game.

Q. Most of the points you won in that final were with very high-quality tennis. Did you feel like the level you had to produce to win points against Ash today was that high?
JULIA GOERGES: Well, I knew exactly what I had to do to win my points and the same for her, I guess. So I didn't want to step away from my plan. I wanted to stay aggressive and I knew, as I mentioned, I have to do some unforced errors to really get out the targets and really where I have to play and sometimes not as close to the lines and have bigger targets, so yes, sometimes it was maybe a little bit too much here and there, but also it is about your opponent, so she forced me to do it.

Q. Is there anything at all you would have done differently, or did you do what you intended to do, it just didn't quite work?
JULIA GOERGES: No, I'm pretty satisfied with the way I approached that final and the way I was playing. I said it was only about a few points here and there and if you see it's two sets, but we played one-and-a-half hours. I think it says everything already how close it was in every game.

Q. So what is next? You going down to Eastbourne?
JULIA GOERGES: Yes.

Q. Are you playing doubles as well?
JULIA GOERGES: No, thank you (smiling).

Q. A little bit too much?
JULIA GOERGES: A little bit, yes.

Q. Coming to Wimbledon, are you going to do a mix of the two, or just the singles?
JULIA GOERGES: Just singles. I'm a bit older already (laughing).

Q. How will you reflect on this week when you look back on it?
JULIA GOERGES: Very positive for me. Seven matches including doubles here, I think that's all what I wanted. If you get on the grass, if you want to have matches and just -- I think I can be very proud from where I started from the week of almost being out of the tournament and now sitting here, played a great final and didn't drop a set afterwards, until the final, so overall I'm very happy and excited for Wimbledon now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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