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SHISEIDO WTA FINALS SHENZHEN

October 27, 2019

Sylvain Bruneau

Shenzhen, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It's been a standout year for Bianca and you. She exudes self-confidence. Has she always been like that?
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: For sure confidence this year. I guess it started in 2018 winning a lot of matches. I think it snowballed and she got incredible confidence out of it. She's always been a confident player. I must say with all the matches, percentage of winning ratio, she probably grew even more confident.

She's always had that, like, trusting her skills, being able to picture her in the future doing really well. She's always been like this. Even when we started working together and she was ranked 250, I was surprised with things she told me she thought she could achieve. I guess it was there, yes.

Q. How do you manage not allowing that to become almost a trap, given the results she had this year, the win streaks?
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: I think if you become overconfident, it's probably as dangerous as if you're not enough confident, definitely.

We're aware of it. I'm aware of it. So is she. We try she never gets to this level. We discuss it. We see players do really well, then they're going through a tougher time. It's to be a bit preventive and discuss it.

It's definitely a possibility. We see that happening all the time, yeah.

Q. When you look back over the season you've had with Bianca, where was the turning point?
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: Everybody goes to me and says that 2019 was spectacular. For sure it was. I think it started before that. I think it started at the end of 2018 where she played very small tournaments. I really feel this is where it happened.

She won 20 of 23 matches, something like that. I just felt, like, her game really, really growing. Going back on the court after every single match she played, every single day, which we've not been able to do on the tour as much. I think this is where it happened.

Of course, her first tournament of the year in Auckland where she had wins over Caroline, Venus, a few others. I think that's where she thought, I can do this now, I don't need to do this in a couple of years, I'm ready to do this.

She just took the ball and ran with it basically. Just kept going since then, yeah.

Q. How much has her success changed your life? How unexpected has this season been for you personally?
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: It is unexpected, I must say. Although she and I felt this was going to happen eventually, it's been a bit faster for sure than we expected. It's been a quick adaptation going from winning in Auckland to winning Indian Wells, then obviously an injury, but then Toronto and US Open. It's been quite hectic.

Her life is very different. At the same time last year we were basically in Norman, Oklahoma, for a 25, something like this, where they would not give us new balls.

You come here, and she's treated... It's a totally different world.

The thing is, it's not like she step by step, year by year. It went really fast. But she's really down-to-earth. I would say a lot of things have changed around her, for sure. In Canada, they named a street after her, that sort of thing. We're not used to have Grand Slam champions in Canada, not yet (smiling).

But she has this where she stayed the same. I think that's what matters.

Q. What has been a worry is the injuries. What's the plan for next year? She said up until now she's pretty much been treated as the underdog. She's probably now considered one of the favorites.
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: We're going to go about scheduling differently next year than what we did this year. The start of the year this year, it was just a match after another after another after another. I think there was a bit of probably too much volume.

Her ranking now being what it is, we're going to have a different approach. She's not going to play as much. We're going to try to make it different definitely.

I think we learned a little bit from what happened, too. I thought it was very exciting in January and February, all of that, all those matches. But then somehow it got to her with the injury. I think we all learned.

She's also now traveling with a therapist who is taking care of her. That's very helpful. A fitness person, as well. We made some changes to make sure this was not going to be hopefully an issue again.

Q. Bianca's first match is against Halep, who in the past she has called her idol. How are you preparing her for that one?
SYLVAIN BRUNEAU: She brought up Simona a lot earlier. I felt it was someone she really looked up to when she was younger. Recently she had the chance also to play Serena. They don't have the Romanian thing, but it was a lot of similarities. We were able to get some experience there and preparation with playing someone she was looking up to coming up and growing up. So I think it will be a bit similar.

Again, as much as she respects Simona, she's really looked up to her, shaped some stuff in her game based on what she does, obviously we need to make sure when she steps on the court that stays behind obviously. That's going to be my role.

As I said, playing Serena in Toronto and in New York I think was helpful in that regard.

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