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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 14, 2019

Ashleigh Barty

Cincinnati, Ohio

A. BARTY/M. Sharapova

6-4, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. The first two times you played Maria it went to three sets. This seemed more efficient for you. Did you make any adjustments from the last few matches, keeping this tighter?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I think it was important for me after probably not a great start in my first couple service games to bring back the momentum a little bit. And early in that second set I knew it was really important to start again, start the match fresh again and really focus on those first few games.

Q. Seemed like early on you were maybe not overhitting but being more aggressive than you needed to be against her and sort of dialed things back, more court coverage. Was that what you were doing out there?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, it took a little bit to adjust to conditions, as well, I think, you know, coming out there. It was easy for me to be able to swing out at the start, and then it was kind of the tight of the strings and sweet of the strings a little bit. It was easy to be able to bring it back in, play within myself and focus on what I needed to.

Q. Your first win of the hard court swing. How are you feeling about your game? Confidence and getting adjusted to the conditions? In singles, anyway.
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, I mean, it was certainly no panic sessions after last week. I knew I was a little bit underdone going into Toronto and certainly had no worries or concerns there.

I feel like I have been striking the ball really well over the last seven or eight days. I found my groove a little bit more. Had a great session yesterday and felt a lot more comfortable where I am at and how I was striking the ball.

Then it was just going out there trying to execute playing against one of the best competitors of the world and making sure I had to be there present and ready for every single point.

Q. Maria's type of tennis dominated for so long. You won today. Sakkari beat Kvitova last night. Heavier topspin. Maybe not the tallest girls. What do you make of the shift in tactics?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I think in a way it's probably -- I don't want to say "us shorties." I'm not that little.

Look, we are just finding a way to get in and to neutralize. I feel like the athleticism across the women's game has improved over the last few years. I think overall it's now more equal.

It doesn't really matter if you're big, tall, or short or strong or whatever it is. It's kind of any shape or form can work, and you just have to play your brand of tennis, trust yourself, do the work, and then put yourself out there and try to do the best that you can.

Q. How do you think this has evolved? Do you think the women have begun to train differently or just put a different focus on other parts of the game?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I don't know. I can't tell you that one. I know for me personally it was a big shift and a big focus to try to make sure that I was the best athlete that I could be as well as the best tennis player that I could be. They go hand in hand.

I think you can't hit a tennis ball if you can't get to it and can't move out to it. For me, that's one of my biggest focuses. I'm sure it is for a lot of other women, as well.

Q. You're going to be on center court quite a bit more compared to previous years. How do you enjoy playing on the big stage?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I mean, they are beautiful courts. Every court is beautiful. In saying that, every court is also the same size. The lines certainly don't change, and once you kind of get used to your surroundings whether it's a big court or small court, back or front, it doesn't really bother me, to be honest.

Q. Do you ever get out there and say, "I am playing Maria Sharapova, this is so cool," to yourself? Or do you just keep it businesslike in your head?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I hope she says, "I'm playing Ash Barty." (Laughter.)

No, obviously it's an honor and privilege to be able to play champions and legends of our game, but, you know, once the coin toss is done, you forget about that and certainly don't play the reputation of the person. You play the person on the other side of the net.

Q. Kontaveit next. What do you make of her as an opponent? What sort of challenges does she present?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Very clean game. Very strong game across the board. There aren't too many flaws in her game at all. I think she's a great ball striker. When she's inside the court and in control can be very dangerous.

I think for me it's important to try and bring in my variety as much as I can, make sure I move well and make her play a lot of balls and try and spread the court as much as possible. Also accepting she's having one of the best years of her life and is playing some really good tennis.

It will be tough either way, but it's about going out there and approaching it the right way regardless of the result, just trying to do the best that I can.

Q. A question about your game. It's very all-around, all the shots in the book. You're still quite young. Tennis-wise, is there anything you'd like to add to your game at this point?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I continue to try and add things every single day. Every single day I try and improve and develop one facet of my game. I think if you're not improving and moving forward, you're going backwards.

I think it's important every single day to try to get that a little bit better. Not as much as any technical changes or any things like that. It's just a development and a general improvement.

Q. What do you make of and have you gotten to see a lot of Bianca Andreescu play? Two big titles this year. Plays a game that has a lot of variety in it, slice, all that sort of stuff. From your tennis IQ perspective, what do you make of her?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: She's had an incredible year. I know it's been extremely disrupted by injury, but when she's come back and been ready, she's been incredible.

To be honest, I haven't watched a lot of her matches, haven't seen a lot of it, but from what I have seen, she has variety across all the board. A big forehand when she needs it. She can give herself time when she needs it. She moves well, looks after her serve well.

Again, there aren't too many flaws in her game. I think more than anything else, she hasn't played a lot of matches, hasn't played too many tournaments. I think a lot of people haven't seen a lot of her, either.

Yeah, it was incredible how she handled kind of that playing at home, first tournament back, and the way she got herself into the tournament in Toronto was incredible.

Q. Do you stay in touch with members of the cricket team?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I do. Yeah, I mean, good friends of mine. I'm in touch with them more often than not.

Q. You travel all around the world to different places. Wondering when you're practicing here, specifically do you look up and catch some of the roller coasters out of the corner of your eye? Sort of a surreal experience. Curious whether you feel that way?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: I feel like when we're driving here, my physio, the first time he had come here, and I said the tennis center kind of pops out of nowhere, like feels like it pops up. He's, like, it's a massive size if it can just pop up.

But when we are driving in, he goes, Oh, it did just appear. It's a little bit of a bizarre feeling, I suppose, because it's just we're here and you look over and there is roller coasters and things. My team has been eyeing them. I'm not so keen on that.

Q. It's a metaphor for the WTA.
ASHLEIGH BARTY: We will see. If we have a day, we may have to jump over there, but they will have to do some serious convincing I think on my part.

Q. There is some promising men players coming up in Australia. Do you have any interaction with them?
ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, when we cross baths in these tournaments -- we ran into Demon yesterday. He was out on the golf course yesterday afternoon, which is good.

When we see each other at tournaments, we cross paths, but other than that, a few of the Queensland boys that I train with when we are back in Australia, I see them. But otherwise, not too much, no.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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