US OPEN

September 8, 2020

Robbe Ceyssens

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you guys approached Elise playing more aggressive here at the Open? And also, how you approach talking to a player like her and convincing her that she is in a position where she can win a Grand Slam?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: First of all, during the break, it all starts with the serve, so if she has a good placement and she can be aggressive on the next shot, as well, so that's what we worked on during the break.

Then we actually are not busy with talking about winning Grand Slams. We're just taking one match at a time, and then we will see what happens. So if she can play her level of yesterday, yeah, we will see, and I think she can go far, yeah.

Q. Was yesterday's match, was that the best that Elise has played since the restart?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: I knew she could play like that in practice, but maybe in, like, official match it was quite a good match, I think seven unforced errors in the whole match, and she served really well.

Yeah, she was really consistent out there. So maybe, yeah, that was the best one up until now, yeah.

Q. In looking ahead, how do you see her game matching up with Azarenka's?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: Azarenka is also an aggressive player, and she can really be on the baseline. So I think we need to -- Elise plays also a little bit more aggressive there, that she's not pushed back too much from the baseline, so I think that's really important. And then try to get her on the run, as well.

Yeah, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q. For any fans who aren't yet familiar with Elise's game, how would you describe her style of play? What is most important to her success?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: She grew up when she was young with making all the balls and not missing, so that's a little bit her base. She gets a lot of balls back into the court, and she was in the past maybe a bit too defensive. That's why we are working a bit more on her aggressive game.

She has that as a base, and now we are working on, yeah, getting her chances into the court. Also following to the net a little bit where she can, and then try to make good shots with serve and the next shot. And then returning aggressively is also really important nowadays, especially when you have games where the opponent is serving some second serves. You try to, yeah, take advantage of that. So, yeah.

Q. What would you say you're most pleased about with Elise's game here in New York? Because it's still very early in the season coming out of the shutdown. So what makes you the most happy about her performance?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: Yeah, the way she plays her matches after the break, because you never know after a big or long practice session, you never know how it's going to translate into matches.

So the way she's competing and the way she's mentally ready for every match and every opportunity to play her best game, I think I'm really pleased with that. Especially yesterday she was really focused.

We were well prepared. We knew what Kenin was doing. And she lost to her in China end of 2019, so we watched that match, and, yeah, we had a good game plan.

So, yeah, I think that's also really important for tomorrow. So we are going to watch some matches from Azarenka this week. She's playing a high level, as well. So it's going to be a good match, yeah.

Q. The return game of Azarenka seems to be maybe as good as it was many years ago. Can you talk a little bit about the challenge of serving against her?

ROBBE CEYSSENS: Yeah, I think it's going to be about Elise's first serve. If she can place it really well like yesterday, she has a good chance of being in the advantage in the rallies.

When her first-serve percentage is not really high, we have to find a solution of maybe take something off of the first serve but get that high serve percentage so she can be aggressive on her second serve. If she has a second serve, then Elise tries to have a good quality on her second serve, good placement, good speed.

Yeah, so that's going to be really important.

Q. We know Elise the tennis player on the court in action, but I was hoping you could tell us what she's like as an individual away from the court.

ROBBE CEYSSENS: One thing that comes up in my mind is animals. She loves animals. She has five dogs at home. So she is really, yeah, busy with them at home.

She has also, I don't know, turtles, two turtles. She likes animals, and she's really -- when she sees, like, the Canadian gooses at the hotel, she's like, Hey, that makes her feel like at home because she likes animals. She has some animals at home.

Yep. That's a little bit one thing that comes up when you say Elise outside of tennis.