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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

January 5, 2020

Samantha Stosur

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. Sam, I suppose you're coming up against an outstanding rival to start with. What -- you've played nine times or so, what are your impressions of Angelique? You've seen her around this weekend, how do you tackle her?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, obviously, we've played each other a bunch of times. And, last year in Eastbourne, the year before in Doha. She's obviously an extremely good player. She's won Slams, she's been at the top of the sport. So you know every time you're going to play Angie, you're going to have to work very hard, be willing to hang in some points, try and take charge. You want to play your game, but not be sucked into doing too much too early because you know she's going to be able to run a lot of balls down and make some incredible winners. So look, she's going to be extremely tough, as everyone is in the draw. So certainly didn't go into this event thinking that you would get an easy shot into the second round by any means. But first and foremost for me, tomorrow, whatever day I play it's about doing what I know I can do and putting in a good performance. And if that's walking off the court with a win, that's awesome. If it's not, as long as I've put in that performance that I'm happy with and done the things that I know I can do, then it's also okay. So it's, there's no guarantees, in this event especially, so got to give it your best.

Q. I don't know if you remember the first time you played each other, but in the 2011 U.S. Open semi-final she was sort of coming out of nowhere in that draw. She was ranked 90-something maybe. I'm curious what you remember about that match and if you saw anything in her, in that match or that run that you know that she could be a future No. 1 Grand Slam champ some day? What your memories are on that.
SAMANTHA STOSUR: To be honest, until I played her I had no idea who she was. Like you said, she was ranked, I think in the 90s. A lot of players hadn't seen her before. I think I remember talking with Casey Dellacqua where, I think she played her a week or two before in the Dallas event and, yeah, she was like the new player who had this incredible run at the U.S. Open. And then from there has just gone strength to strength, which doesn't always happen either. Sometimes a player of that ranking may have an incredible event, but you don't see them then get to top-10 and push to No. 1 and win Grand Slams and just continue that trend. So yeah, what she's been able to do since that time, which kind of probably surprised everyone is, yeah, pretty remarkable.

Q. What do you remember about that night, particularly, from the grandstand, I think which was unusual for a Slam semi and then, obviously, you won a Slam shortly after. So what are your memories of that match particularly?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, well, I remember it being tough, we had, it was a match where we didn't know a whole lot about her, but, obviously, knew some basic things that Dave was able to look at at the time and give me some, obviously, good tactics to go on with. And I remember my weapons and my shots matching up very well against her. I feel like she's probably got a lot more variety in her game now than what she did back then. So, yeah, it was kind of, I remember thinking in that match as I played game after game, okay, if do I this, I'm going to get this. If I'm going to do that, I'm not going to get that. Whereas now she's, obviously, not as predictable, because you can't be when you're that good. So it's interesting to see how her game's been able to evolve and, yeah, go from strength to strength.

Q. You've carried the expectations of a country into a summer, you know what it's like. Do you now look at Ash and do you have fears that that might get to her or the pressure might become too much for her this summer?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: No, I mean, who knows what's going to happen, that's the thing. So, but, yeah, like I said before, about my own putting in a good performance, I think that's what Ash is probably very good at doing, whether she's playing here or somewhere else around the world. And that's got to be the focus for her because she's No. 1 and playing at home. Again, it's a tough tournament. There's many good players here and of course the expectation from probably the fans in Australia is going to be out there. But we all know in here how tough that is and it's no different to any other year. We all want to do well here. But I think Ash has always carried herself very well and this rise that she's had, she's done it. She barely put a foot wrong, so I don't see why that's going to change this time around. So like I say, it's not easy and there's no guarantees, but, yeah, full belief she's able to do it.

Q. Curious what it's been like with the different event here this year with the ATP Cup coming in taking over the main stadium for the first however many days, I think three days, pushing women out to the main draw for the first two days. What are your thoughts on that? And your first match will definitely not be on the main stadium and possibly not, also, the second round. Just curious, especially being your home event, what you make of this sort of shift in the status or treatment of WTA here?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Yeah, it's a tough one. I think the support that the ATP Cup's getting, I think has been really good. You can hear the roars of the stadium and that's all really exciting and everything. It doesn't, it's hard to say because main draw for us hasn't started yet either. But there's still a good vibe around the grounds and everything. I have to say, it's a bit rough that there's no women's matches on center court until Thursday, especially. So, yeah, that, in that way it's not great, but Brisbane International WTA event is still going to be good. There's always great matches outside no matter what anyway. So I guess, yeah, it does change the complexion a little bit, and I know a few fans that I've talked to or come up to me are a little bit confused about what's actually going on, but that's probably the same when anything changes and it becomes new, and, yeah, you got to get your head around it. But so far I think it's been really good being on-site and playing in no disruptions to us at all.

Q. When did you hear about the schedule changes and what were your -- how did you hear about it and what were your thoughts when you did hear about it?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Well, I can't remember when it was. It was a little while ago I knew that that was going to be the case. But like I said before, I think not having main draw matches on center court isn't great, until you get to Thursday. But when you hear the reasons behind it, you can kind of accept it a little bit more. But hopefully that might be the same in future years.

Q. Would you like to see that change next year, have it different?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Well, I don't know. Who knows. I mean, I know we're looking at trying to have, working with TA as well to, as the WTA working with TA, to always make the tournaments better, so we'll see what happens.

Q. Just on that, Craig Tiley was quoted as saying that he would love to do something similar with the WTA. Can you see merit in that, or do you -- I know that sounds strange and that could cause scheduling issues for players as well. Do you see that being a viable option in the future?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Well, I don't see why not. I mean, actually, I talked to Craig about that at Wimbledon last year, and I know that he's very much on board to try and make a WTA event. I don't know how many years ago, six, seven years ago, maybe, WTA was trying to do the same thing, couldn't fit it in the week. ATP being able to do it because they changed the week. They didn't try and add another one and I think that's going to be important for us if we try and do this and you can't find another week between Christmas and New Years. It's not possible. So, but again, then that affects a tournament that's been very successful and run really well. So, but I think everyone likes playing in a team. We all love playing for our country, whether it's in Fed Cup or the Olympics or these guys with ATP Cup now. I don't see why WTA would be any different. I think a combined event would be amazing. I mean, Hopman Cup's always been very successful with the men and women. So I think if you are going to do it, I think it would be pretty cool to have a combined event because that would be the one, one event in the world where the men and women are on the same team and doing that. So I think that would be really exciting if all parties can get together and make that happen.

Q. Curious about your conversations with Craig, because TA's been pretty aggressive in starting new events. They had a hand in starting Laver Cup and now they have a big hand in the ATP Cup, and those are both mens-only events. I'm curious what the conversations are like among Aussie women and if they want similar initiative on their side as well.
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Well, I mean, I think that, I don't know all the ins and outs now because I'm not on the WTA council, so I'm not privy to all that information that I once had. But like I said, I think if it's about growing it, an event to be bigger, create a little bit different excitement to just your normal kind of event or whatever it is, then I think all the players would be totally up for it. So I think this time of year especially, it's about trying to get on court and play and if you can add another element to whatever, you know, playing for your country instead or a combined men's and women's event, then that would be incredible. I mean, it looks like we're a combined event here. It always does because we're ATP and WTA, and we're playing in the same venue, but we're two very separate tournaments. So if we can combine those and do that, then I don't think anyone would say don't do it, because I think that would be really exciting.

Q. With the length of the season, with the Fed Cup finals, is there also anything you did in the off-season that you didn't feel more rejuved so you had to make any compromises while you're preparing?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: Oh, it's definitely more reduced than normal, for sure, and especially the year before, I finished kind of mid-October, so it was a whole month later this time around. Which, if I could play a month later into the season because you're doing something well, then that's a good problem to have. But yeah, I took three weeks off and started training on the 2nd of December, so I still ended up with five weeks, which is okay. It's not ideal, but it's more than what a lot of the guys get. So, yeah, it's just, I guess sometimes you got to be a little more creative and then you kind of think about last year, I had 10 weeks, could really build and build and build. This year was different, so you got to be adaptable and adjust a few things. But, yeah, you get ready. We're all kind of in the same boat.

Q. What would make 2020 a success in your eyes?
SAMANTHA STOSUR: A few things, but mostly I want to enjoy what I'm doing and keep doing what I love, embrace the challenges that come my way. There's always going to be things that pop up that aren't so easy to deal with, but you try and get through it and make it better. And I think for me at the moment being on court, it's really important for me to have that kind of mentality and go out there and enjoy it while I can still do it. So that's what I want out of my tennis this year.

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