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WUHAN OPEN

September 22, 2019

Elina Svitolina

Wuhan, Hubei, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Maybe some injury issues. How are you feeling now? How are you feeling heading into this week?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, there were some issues, but it's been going up and down for some time now. It's tough to judge now how I feel. I just take one day at a time. I don't think so much about it. I have to don't get it in my mind. I take one match, one day at a time.

We'll see how I feel. I do everything what's in my power to be ready and to play well here and Beijing.

Q. After the US Open you talked about needing to manage the physicality as well as you could during the Asian swing. So far do you feel you are in as good of shape as you can possibly be under the circumstances?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, I don't want to have a negative thoughts about anything, if I'm ready, if I'm not ready, if I could be better. It's some not necessary thoughts that can play bad game in your mind, I would say. Too much thinking, too much elevating [sic].

I've been training little bit, not so much. I feel that I can play well when I feel good. I try to do everything what's possible to feel good on the court physically.

Q. What are the goals for you and your team for the remainder of the season, isolate it to just the next few weeks?
ELINA SVITOLINA: The goal is to be healthy. Other goals, of course we all know Shenzhen, of course, is the goal. We don't want to focus too much, miss on the preparation, miss on some small details which going to give us a chance to play well and to be in Shenzhen.

Q. In terms of when you speak to the doctors or specialists about the injury, do they give you a sense of once you get to the off-season, have time to rest, it will get all better? Is that the only solution, which is why it's not a solution at the moment?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, for sure. For now there is no really solution. I mean, I could not play in Zhengzhou and Guangzhou, but I decided to play, decided to go for it. I didn't know I'm going to spend 5 hours 15 minutes on one day which really damaged all my fitness and my body for the next tournament, which I was not ready to play. That's why we made a decision to rest little bit. I practiced today, I feel all right. I think I'll be ready to play on Tuesday.

Q. Having won the WTA Finals last year, how much does getting back there figure into your mindset and goals?
ELINA SVITOLINA: For sure it's the goal for the end of the season. As I said, I don't want to focus too much that I have to do it. It's only like, what, three tournaments left I'm going to play. Everyone is pretty close with the points.

For sure it's the goal, but also the goal to stay healthy and to don't lose my knee. That's important as well, I think (smiling).

Q. What kind of extra stress does this point in the season present? It usually comes down to the wire. How does this year compare to others?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Trying to put so much pressure with all these questions (smiling).

I mean, of course, there is pressure of the last tournaments. Everyone is chasing something. There is already naturally pressure. All these tournaments, everybody is strong, everyone is playing here. That's why, of course, you want to do your best. Sometimes it's happen that it's not going to go your way.

For me that's why I try to focus only on my health and on my game, then what's going to happen is going to happen.

Q. With the back-to-back semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open, what do you see as the consistent thread between both of those events that allowed you to get those breakthrough results? How proud are you to be able to post two big results at the slams amidst everything?
ELINA SVITOLINA: It definitely was something good that I did this year, to play well at the two Grand Slams where one I played most of the time bad, Wimbledon, then I never really went past last 16 in US Open. So it was really good two tournaments for me.

I played some great matches there against tough opponents. I handled the pressure quite good. Of course, I wish I could play little bit better on both in the semifinals. You learn from that. I took lots of positives.

For me it was very, very hard, for sure, losing the semifinal. You have to learn from it and go from there.

Q. The tournament here has a few services to help players relax, like the foot massage.
ELINA SVITOLINA: Yes, that helps a lot. Definitely it's amazing. That's why I love this tournament, because the foot massage is unbelievable here. Especially when there is lots of pressure from the Race to Shenzhen, this helps massively (laughter).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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