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SHISEIDO WTA FINALS SHENZHEN

October 28, 2019

Jiri Vanek

Shenzhen, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Petra obviously has been here before, knows how the round-robin works. How was she feeling after yesterday's match?
JIRI VANEK: I think yesterday was pretty nice match, pretty close. Petra felt pretty good after the match. Naomi play better most important points. Petra looking forward to play next match.

She feel good after the match, focus herself. I hope tomorrow going to be a different story. If she continue to play like against Naomi yesterday, she have a good chance to win tomorrow.

Q. What did you feel about her performance yesterday?
JIRI VANEK: It was good. In beginning of the match, she has lot of chances. I think the first she's supposed to win. Had so many breakpoints. Naomi played amazing serves, important points. She's on fire now, won two tournaments before to come here. I think was one of the toughest opponent here for the first match.

Q. Watching the match it felt like déjà vu from the Australian Open. Was it the same for you?
JIRI VANEK: Yeah, that was what we said after the match, even during the match in the box. Was actually almost the same. I mean, Petra had so many chances in the first set in Australian Open, also here. Lost 6-7. Then she come back. 1-All in the third set, she was broken.

Sometimes the girls, they have it in her minds. But it's just tennis. I mean, probably top eight players in the world, who is a little bit stronger in the head during the match, probably he take the matches. It's going to be like that.

Q. Do you think it was in Petra's mind?
JIRI VANEK: I talk to her after the match. She said she was just one time after the match, it was 1-All in the third when she get broken. Oh, is the same like Australian Open. Then she said, I forgot it and just tried to play my best.

Naomi in the third set was better.

Q. It's been a tough year for Petra. What has been the biggest challenge in getting her back up and running?
JIRI VANEK: Of course, the beginning of the year was just amazing for Petra. She played so many matches. For her game, it's tough to play clay season. In clay, you use lot of spins. She like to go for winners, play short rallies.

Probably something happened during the clay season. She broke, I don't know, one of the muscles here. It was tough period of the season when she was coming back.

We went to Wimbledon straightaway. We maybe hit 30 minutes. You know how she's feeling in Wimbledon. She said, I want to play so badly.

Probably maybe if we could wait three, four more weeks, our US Open Series will be better for her. You never know. Like she said, you never know if it's last time in my life. I want to play, doesn't matter, even after I finish the Wimbledon. We just try it.

Coming back after US Open Series, she has couple good results in Asia, in Wuhan and Beijing, her confident come back. You can see in yesterday match, she was playing pretty good. But Naomi was just too good.

Q. She has the compression sleeve. Is that a precaution?
JIRI VANEK: Just protection. Probably after this tournament she going to have, like, two weeks off. For sure she going to see some doctors. Doctor told her already, Wear it for the rest of the season, then for the beginning of next season we start without it.

Q. I noticed that in every practice session, Petra plays football with you. How helpful is playing football to her tennis game?
JIRI VANEK: I mean, for Petra, I think it's different player. Most of the time when she's smiling, then she's playing nice tennis or great tennis.

Just me and our fitness coach, we try to keep her positive, try to smile a lot. She like play some funny stuff with the boys especially.

Probably I don't think so she going to play with two other girls they can play that good soccer together, (indiscernible) ball, how we call it. She just enjoy. Before every practice, Guys, let's play soccer. That's why we are playing. She like it.

Q. Petra has so many Chinese fans. What do you make of how popular she is here?
JIRI VANEK: I feel it. Everywhere we come to China, everybody around the whole hotel is screaming Petra name. She like it. She really enjoy it. Almost every day she has a present or some painting from them. It's really nice for her. She love it so much here.

Q. When you look back on the year she's had, where do you think you're most proud of as a coach?
JIRI VANEK: Of course, for her was after we start together, we just said, Let's do it, like some goals for us. If you play Masters, it's perfect. She said, Once in my life I want to be able to make the Grand Slam and play final.

So for her most important thing was Australian Open, that she make the final, she has the chance again to play for the trophy. Was a great final. She just lost by couple of points. She really happy after that what everything happened to her she was able to continue like that.

Q. How important was it for her to reach a final that wasn't on grass?
JIRI VANEK: I mean, before she thought she going to play just the best matches on the grass. She like it when the surface is faster. She can play good when the ball bounces pretty low.

She likes so much Australia because how is the people around her. It's really relax. It's her attitude, how she's always smiling. She said, I want to do nice result in Australian Open.

Always we try to catch the balance which tournament playing before a Grand Slam. We decided to play Sydney. She won Sydney after she was playing twice after midnight. She was totally tired. She was probably not thinking too much how she going to do in Australian Open. That's help her a lot for the first two, three rounds. Suddenly she start to play so good and start to feel great there.

She's really happy she made the final in different tournament just than Wimbledon.

Q. Is it just the faster clay she can deal with?
JIRI VANEK: I think still in Roland Garros, years before she was there in semifinal and things. I was not with her. But, I mean, actually she's feel much comfortable on clay after last two years because next year she won Prague and Madrid. Again this year she won Stuttgart. She was quarterfinal in Madrid, lost to Kiki. She was playing just amazing there. She was really focused to play good on Roland Garros. That happened with the hand, was just bad luck.

She's feel much comfortable on clay now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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