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ZHENGZHOU OPEN

September 9, 2019

Kiki Bertens

Zhengzhou, China

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions in English first.

Q. Can you fill us in one what you've been up to since the US Open and when you arrived here?
KIKI BERTENS: Yeah, I've got home on Monday from New York, back home. Then I had a few things to do at home, not so many days. But I prepared as good as I could to come here. I arrived yesterday night. But, yeah, just had my first hits and it feels good to be here.

Q. And what are your first impressions of the city and the tournament and the conditions here?
KIKI BERTENS: Yeah, it feels good. I think the facilities here on site, it's really good, especially since it's the first time they've held the tournament. But, yeah, no, my first impressions are really good. Really well organized, they were waiting for me like in the airport and in the hotel, so everything was really, really a good setup. So, yeah, let's see what the rest of the week is going to bring us.

Q. How are you feeling physically and how happy are you with where your game is at?
KIKI BERTENS: Physically I feel good. I didn't have too many hours of practice, to be honest, over the last few days, but I just had one and I did some physical work. So it's all feeling good. I think mentally I'm ready again for the next challenge and, yeah, where my game is at it's like, I don't know, to be honest, I've been struggling a little bit over the last few months like with the consistency. I would say the level is there, but not every day, so, yeah, we just try to keep it at the same level and try to still improve where we can.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Chinese.

Q. This year's China season may be a bit longer than the last year, so have you prepared for this season and how many stops or tournaments will you play here?
KIKI BERTENS: Yeah, I will play in total three events in China. So a little bit or one more than last year. Next week I have a tournament planned in Japan and then I play Wuhan and Beijing. So, yeah, it's just nice to be back here, I would say, and just like prepare as good as I can for the last bit of the season.

Q. Conventionally we think you are a typical clay player, but recently you have improved a lot on hard court and grass court and you have won some championships. So how do you manage this and how can you, how do you improve your games on such a level?
KIKI BERTENS: Yeah, I've improved a lot, I would say, over the last two years by playing of course more on the hard and the grass court, and by playing really aggressive, we really practice on that, and, yeah, it worked out pretty well by winning my first tournaments on hard court, I had a final in a grass tournament at home, playing the quarters of Wimbledon last year helped me a lot, so, yeah, I think it's, with the growing of the confidence, but also with my level, yes.

Q. So the American season has just finished and considering that you are in the ninth position to the Shenzhen finals, so have you made some adjustments to finally make your name in those finals?
KIKI BERTENS: Well, these tournaments were already scheduled, but still I think I have a lot of events where I can gain points. So we just are going to do everything in the next few weeks to be part of the finals in Shenzhen, of course. So hopefully I'm going to make it and I'll have a few good weeks here in China, but I think otherwise it's still a good season.

Q. Can you make a review on your Grand Slam season performance?
KIKI BERTENS: Yeah, that was not great, to be honest. I wished, of course, that I was doing better in the Grand Slams this year, but it didn't happen. But I think still, in general, of course, the four Grand Slams are the biggest tournaments of the year, but we still have, I would say, 40 other weeks where we can play tournaments, so in the rest of the season I did really well so I'm still part of the Top-10.

Q. Do you pay any attention to the US Open and especially the US Open finals, Bianca won the title. Do you think she will make an impact on the tennis world like this?
KIKI BERTENS: Well I haven't seen anything of the match because I was flying here. So but of course she had a great run there, I think a great year so far. The tournaments where she was able to play, she almost won every one of them. So, yeah, she's playing great at this moment. I think, yeah, we have to see like now I think everyone starts looking at her a little bit more and more media attention, so I think the next few months is interesting if she can handle everything, all the pressure. But she seems like that she can handle anything, so, yeah, let's see.

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