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WUHAN OPEN

September 22, 2019

Petra Kvitova

Wuhan, Hubei, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling physically coming into this tournament? How happy are you to be back at a tournament where you've had success in the past?
PETRA KVITOVA: Feeling good. Hopefully I passed the jetlag finally. Overall I'm kind of healthy. For the end of the season, everybody feeling something. But like overall I think it's okay.

Q. You've done some practicing. What do you make of the conditions?
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, it's pretty warm here. I do remember the years when it was pretty humid and raining. It didn't come yet, which is nice to have a warm weather.

The balls are pretty flying as well. That's nice, of course. It suits my game. I'm not really complaining.

Q. In terms of post US Open, how much of the time was spent just resting and recuperating, getting your body as healthy as it can be, and how much was spent preparing on the tennis court?
PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, I had just a few days off. I came back to Czech. Then I started with rehab on my arm again, starting to practice. So I did, like, almost everything what I could again. As I said, little bit better.

Yeah, I mean, I hit almost every day. I need my arm to still be in the work. I'm still continuing the same process as I did before the US Open.

Q. It sounds like it's not 100%, but is it better than it was before the Open? Where would you gauge the arm right now?
PETRA KVITOVA: Definitely it's not worse, so that's a good sign. Sometimes it's much better, sometimes it's on the same level as it was before the US Open. That's kind of good sign, I think. We'll see how it will react after the match.

Definitely from the practices, it's okay.

Q. You played against Kim Clijsters at the time of her last comeback. She's coming back again next season. What do you make of it? What do you think she can still do on the tour?
PETRA KVITOVA: Definitely I didn't expect that announcement, so it really surprised me that she's coming back.

I like Kim as a person and as a player. I think she achieved a lot. She is still normal person which I really like. It will be nice to see her on the tour again. Hopefully she will do great as she did before.

Q. You have your experiences of getting injured, having to come back in different eras, too. What is the toughest part? What would you say about the tour today that maybe makes it tougher than three or four years ago?
PETRA KVITOVA: I think she's coming after seven or eight years back on the tour. A lot of things changed. I think that physically it's much more tougher than it was before. It's pretty long time. I was out for a couple of months, but not like for seven years. I can't really say how tough it is. But definitely it will be very tough.

We are seeing girls who were out for one year or two years still trying to come back. It's not really easy. We'll see how she can do that.

Q. You're the only repeat champion here in Wuhan. Do you feel extra comfortable here? Have you been able to take advantage of any of the perks on-site like the foot massage?
PETRA KVITOVA: I mean, I feel great here obviously. The first year was still on the small stadium playing there, then the bigger one came. It's just beautiful court. Every time I'm there, those memories came back, so it's beautiful to play here again.

I didn't take any advantage of it. I didn't have any foot massage, yet (smiling). Maybe it will come. We will like to come for the Han show. We are coming every year. If we have a time, we go again.

Q. There's going to be a Hall of Fame tribute to Li Na tonight. Have you got a chance to see her yet?
PETRA KVITOVA: I didn't. Actually I didn't see her unfortunately yet. Hopefully I going to see her soon.

Q. I'm curious what your reaction is to Bianca winning the US Open, just the way she did that. She hasn't played all of the top-10 players. She hasn't played you or Simona, Naomi, Ash. Have you been paying attention to how she's playing, what level she's bringing to potentially the first time you might face her?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, in the final, everything can happen. Playing Serena in the final, of course it's tough. But definitely she had to play well. I saw little bit, I didn't see whole match. Was a really good quality match, definitely.

Of course, I follow tennis little bit, so I know she really had a great results in the past year. To be honest, I'm not really sure how she is playing, like what a game plan she has. We'll see if I going to face her definitely one day.

But overall, I mean, she is pretty young. It's amazing achievement what she did.

Q. There's an English expression to 'stop and smell the roses'. Earlier this month you posted a picture of you smelling roses, appreciating the good things in life.
PETRA KVITOVA: It's nice (smiling).

Q. With all the injuries, everything you had to face, do you feel you're getting better at focusing on positives instead of negatives?
PETRA KVITOVA: I'm still working on it, yeah. Sometimes I still do have a troubles with that. But I think overall I'm a bit better in that.

I think with all the experience I already have, I still have 29, I'm not 30, it's getting there unfortunately, so with those experiences I'm still trying to be more positive on and off the court as well.

I think off the court, it's better for me than on the court. When you are practicing and playing the matches, sometimes the negativity just came to my mind and you recall. I'm still working on it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Chinese.

Q. You mentioned when you first came to Wuhan the court was small and smaller audience. When you come back to Wuhan this year, any comments on the court as well as the changes to Wuhan as a city?
PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I just mentioned the first year when we played here, was just the smaller stadium. Then the bigger one came. It's beautiful court. I mean, it's one of the nicest one on the tour what we have. So it's nice to play on it.

Hopefully fans will come and support us and watch some beautiful tennis.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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