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SHISEIDO WTA FINALS SHENZHENOctober 27, 2019Kristina MladenovicTimea BabosShenzhen, China THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How do you think your experience is going to give you the edge in this one? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: It's obviously an advantage to have experienced this atmosphere and this format and competition before. We also have amazing memories from last year together. We are very excited and looking forward to the event. Q. What is the biggest challenge of defending a title like this in a completely different city? TIMEA BABOS: It's definitely a big challenge and very different surface or conditions. But we're not different. We're the same. We compete hard. We are prepared. We try our best. At the end of the day, that's what really matters. We just going to go out there tomorrow and give everything what we have. Q. Kiki, you played against the Chinese player in the Australian Open final and Roland Garros final. Talk about the two Grand Slam finals against the Chinese players. Also they're here. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, it's a great notice. I think it's amazing how they're playing, what they're doing for Chinese tennis. To see them at the year-end championship, I think it's a super great thing for the Chinese tennis. They're great players. Shuai is a very good singles and doubles player. They played an amazing match in the finals back in Australia this year. Zheng and Duan, they really formed an amazing team during two weeks at Roland Garros. They had an amazing run. Saisai is well-known for her singles skills, as well. Duan was, as well, top 100 before. It's definitely great to see them. I think will be a great crowd behind them, as well. Q. Kiki, have you checked the television channel in your hotel room? You might have a very important men's final to watch tonight. Are you going to watch it? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Is it on TV because I've been watching on my phone every day? I mean, if it's on TV, even better. Q. Coming into the last tournament of the season, what do you reflect on as your biggest moments or the biggest lessons that you've learned so far this year? TIMEA BABOS: Yeah, it was a very special year for us. Once again, it was a little bit different than the years before as we played a lot less tournaments than what we are used to. Still we qualified here with playing only seven tournaments. That just shows us also what we can do. We're really excited and happy once again for this year's results. Obviously winning a Grand Slam title once again together. For me, even the Australian Open final, I think it was one of our most emotional matches together, for sure. We are just developing together and helping each other on and off court. We're really there for each other. Every day is like in a way really special for us. It's actually very difficult to try to find one match or one moment what we are really proud or happy for because it's pretty much almost every single practice or warmup or match what we play. Q. There's $1 million for the doubles winner. Any thought about that? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: We like the trophy. It's a very nice design. She already has two copies at home. I want that she helps me to have a second copy of that trophy actually. TIMEA BABOS: That's the motivation. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: The motivation. TIMEA BABOS: Not the prize money. Q. Kiki, a few days ago you announced you ended the cooperation with Sascha. How is your coach situation right now? We heard a rumor Sascha is going to coach Kim Clijsters next year. Do you know anything about that? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I don't know anything about that. What else I can say? For the rest you can ask him. About what happened, it was very not a nice way from him to finish with me. It was absolutely unexpected. So, yeah, as I mentioned in my announcement, I was very surprised and disappointed about the situation. But now I moved on. I'm just focused on myself. I'm happy where I am at the moment. I will think about the future when the time comes. But right now I'm here and I'm enjoying my time with my best friend and my partner, the whole team that is around me: her team, my team, my family... That's all about it. I think the most important people always stay around you. Q. Have you hit on center court? TIMEA BABOS: It's very different than what we're used to for an indoor tournament. The ball is bouncing a little bit higher. I mean, it's actually our better surface, if we can say that. We really enjoy playing out there. It's our last tournament together, of course, for the year. You just try to adjust. We really did for the last couple days. Kiki was the first one here. I think she really knows well every single court or what's happening around here. Yeah, I think we prepared well. We just cannot wait to get out there tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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