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US OPEN

August 29, 2019

Johanna Konta

New York, NY, USA

J. KONTA/M. Gasparyan

6-1, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That was the second-fastest completed match of the draw so far, 54 minutes. How does that feel to get one out of the way so quickly?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, you know, as a player, on-court time is a little bit irrelevant because you either come through quickly or you come through in three sets in three hours. Either way you're pleased to come through.

However, obviously it's good not to spend a long time out there if you've got another match to prepare for tomorrow. However, I don't think it's a deciding factor at the end of the day.

I think overall I'm just pleased with how I was able to just play the level that I did. I think I adapted to her quite well quite early on, and I thought, yeah, I thought our games matched up well for me. Yeah, just pleased with how I played.

Q. Curious what your Wednesday looked like with all the rain? Did you have to stop and start, warming up and stuff?
JOHANNA KONTA: So I got here around 8:30 in the morning because I was first on. So I actually just finished up my physical warmup and I was about to walk on court just to warm up and that's when it started to rain so we actually went indoors and I hit indoors.

Then it was just a lot of hanging around and a lot of Scrabble and a lot of -- yeah, just really not much until probably warmed up a couple times around 4:00 or so, because that's when they were going to put us on, and it started to rain again. Then I warmed up again and then we went out on court and then we walked on and then it started to rain and then we came off, and then were canceled.

Q. Can you talk about the adjustments that you made from those first two games, really quite competitive, and then you seemed to just really figure it out after that.
JOHANNA KONTA: I actually thought I did a decent job in recognizing quite early on the way I wanted to play. I thought I just needed a bit of time to adapt to her ball. I thought she was actually playing quite flat. It was quite windy out there so it wasn't simple by any means. But I thought I had the right idea in the way I was trying to work the points and the way I was trying to build them.

Yeah, I thought I just did a good job in recognizing that early enough and just staying with it.

Q. Just talk about sort of the mindset coming into the tournament, final Grand Slam of the year, of course, sort of where you're at up here and in terms of your confidence and ability to go far in this tournament.
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I feel pretty good. I feel motivated to be here. I feel excited to be here. That's a good start. If you're not excited for a slam, I'm not sure why you're here (smiling).

Yeah, I'm really happy to be here, and I feel that I've managed my schedule probably the best that I have so far this year. And so I think I feel kind of physically and emotionally in good shape to keep playing until the end of the year, not just for this slam but obviously we've got a whole bunch of tournaments also coming up in Asia.

But I'm pleased with the way -- I feel like I'm growing and improving with each tournament I'm playing. Yeah, I'm looking to do the same here.

Q. You said the obvious, and that is that obviously being able to go out and have a quick match, but especially when you have the delay yesterday and then today and then you'll be playing tomorrow?
JOHANNA KONTA: I assume so, yeah.

Q. One would think. Is that in your head also just to try and get out without a lot of bumps and bruises and don't have a day's rest in between?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I don't obviously look at it like that, because like I said before, at the end of the day, just coming through whatever match you have but just coming through it on the winning end and to get another opportunity is a great position to be in.

Also, we need to remember that outside of the slams and maybe Indian Wells and Miami, I mean, you're generally playing back to back, so it's not going to be a too dissimilar story in that sense. And I think every player is prepared to play back-to-back matches consecutive days. We are in situations sometimes where we're playing two matches in a day. I've already had that this year, as well.

I think I'm prepared to compete tomorrow.

Q. Have you sort of looked at the race to Shenzhen at all? Before you looked fairly close to qualifying, just missed out. Obviously you'll get into the top 8 if you keep winning matches. Have you looked at it closely?
JOHANNA KONTA: No, because I think you just answered your question. The race to Shenzhen kind of takes care of itself if you're doing well in the tournaments you're in and that you're competing.

So, I mean, like you also said a couple years ago, I think I lost out one of the years literally on the last tournament. Really, anything can happen. I think it would be a nice bonus to have at the end of the year, but I think, you know, it's important to stay quite present and just in the tournament that I'm in, because there are so many things that can move until then.

Q. (Question about scheduling.)
JOHANNA KONTA: I think it's just finding the right balance between resting, training, and competing and kind of that cycle. I think it's probably been my clearest year in doing that, and nowhere near is it perfect or ever will be, and that's fine.

But I think the clarity behind the purpose of resting or purpose of training or purpose of competing has been quite good, and I have been enjoying that.

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