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QATAR TOTAL OPEN

February 23, 2020

Karolina Pliskova

Doha, Qatar

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How has preparation been for this tournament and just in terms of the bouncing back from Dubai and all that?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Well, after Australia I did couple good days or almost two weeks. I've been in Prague couple days and then I went to Monaco, so that was my kind of practice block for these two tournaments. And now it's more about feeling the conditions here, because I, obviously, I came on -- what is today? Saturday? No, Sunday, right? So I came on Friday evening. So I have couple days, of course, but I just play once and just to get used to everything here. Of course conditions very different compared to Dubai, so that's mostly what we are doing right now. But feels good, felt good also in Dubai, just unlucky here and there, but I think overall I'm in a good way.

Q. In terms of different conditions, is it just court speed or ball bounce, what is the main thing that you have to adjust to this week?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah, I think the speed definitely is different. We play much later in the afternoon the matches here, so it gets kind of colder and windy a little bit. But I played here a couple years so I know pretty much how it's going here and all the conditions, but it always takes couple days just to get used to it.

The balls are of course different. They are the same as in Australian Open, so, yeah, not that far ago we played with them. But now compared to Dubai it's very different. I think there it was very fast and it was flying a lot, so hopefully better here for me.

Q. You see a lot of Czech players doing well, a lot of Czech players coming through? Do you see some more Czech players coming through, younger generation of Czech players? Is there some sort of program which you have which has contributed to this so many players coming through?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: No, there is no program. At least I didn't have any program. So I think it's everything by the players, how they decide, which coaches they take, where they practice. And I think, especially like me and my family and my sister, we did a lot of changes, so it was not everything in Czech Republic. We were traveling where the conditions for tennis were better. But overall I think right now because so many players are actually coming from Czech Republic, so I think just it's good for young players to start, so there is a lot of idols and that's why maybe there is still coming new players because the country is supporting tennis, tennis is quite a top of sport in this country, so I think that's why. But there is no program that we would just raise players with it.

Q. You've been very faithful to this tournament, we see you almost every year here. Can you talk a little bit how much do you enjoy playing here and few words regarding the draw, please.
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah, I like it, of course I won one year so that always makes me come back because I played well couple years in a row. Last year, unfortunately, I had to withdraw, so decided to be back and playing and healthy. But overall the draw, well I don't have an opponent yet but of course there is Garcia -- actually I beat her that year when I won, so let's see. But, yeah, she still has to win. I think there's a tough round of qualifier for her, so let's see after that. And then I didn't really look who is going to be next. So it starts with the first round and of course it's a difficult tournament, there is pretty much everybody from the top-10, top-20 for sure, so there is not going to be anything easy, so let's see.

Q. Simona has been in the top-10 for like over six years now. You have the next longest streak, it's like 181 weeks starting this week, that you've never dropped out of the top-10. What makes you two special? I mean, at a time when everybody says it's open and rankings don't matter and everybody's going up and down, what has been the key to consistency do you think?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Well, I think definitely we are so much different, so it's not really about the game style or the style which we play, because we play very different. But I think still we can both be consistent even though we just some weeks are not good for us, even like Grand Slams or some tournaments, but then we can always find a way to fight through and just to make even every year some title, even the year was maybe not the best or we defend, of course, every week pretty much a lot of points, it's not easy and everybody is trying to play the best tennis so you can see we struggle sometimes early in the tournaments. And I think especially Simona she's a great fighter so she's able to get through these rounds and tournaments and you can see she won tournament she was losing pretty much every match.

And I think the similar is with me, although I don't look like fighter like she does because she runs a lot. But I feel like I can turn a lot of matches around to make just a lot of matches go my way a little bit, even though the week is not the best and I still try to do my job. I never really take -- I take days off but if I don't have days off I really still practice and I try to do the things which are working, which for the last four or five years I know what is working well for me, so I try to stick with it.

Q. Do you see any players from your generation or even the younger generation having a sustained run like probably Martina Navratilova or even Steffi Graf or is that a very difficult thing to do now because players are really competitive?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Sorry, what was the question?

Q. Do you see your generation players or even younger players having a long run like really dominating like Steffi Graf or Martina, or is that a very difficult thing to do now days with, are they two different generations or two different eras?
KAROLINA PLISKOVA: Yeah, I think it's not going to be very possible right now unless there is somebody really that amazing and then the rest is just that bad (laughing).

So I don't see it really happening because I think it's -- and I think it's not about that we would be playing bad, you know, but I think it's just so close the level and right now, because everybody feels there is a good chance to go, so they just try the best and so it's just tough to be always on the top.

I think also the pressure from press people, from our countries, from ourself, our teams, we always travel with big teams, I think it's much different than it was before. I think for sure they didn't have this kind of pressure, they had maybe different, they had not much money as we have, but now it's much different. So I don't see it really happening, not even -- in the men's tennis you can see it's changing as well, so I don't think -- and I feel much more people are playing tennis right now than they were before. Before I think you could easily get to semi-final every week. I think this is not really -- you can still get there every week, of course you have the chance, but I think it's much harder and you have to struggle a lot to get there. So I'm not sure if this is ever going to happen again. Let's see.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.

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