INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

September 19, 2020

Marketa Vondrousova

Press Conference

M. VONDROUSOVA/E. Svitolina

6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just talk about the recovery from playing that crazy match last night and just emotionally and physically having to recover and come back and play such a great match today.

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: It was kind of tough. I didn't sleep much. But I think I played amazing match today. I didn't even expect this, but I'm just happy to be through and happy with this win.

Q. When you say you played an amazing match, what does that mean to you?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: So I didn't do so many errors. I hit so many great dropshots. Also served really well. Overall, I played great match, I think, today.

Q. What's the tactical challenge of playing Svitolina?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Of course she's a great player. She beat me I think three times already. She's a great runner, and also, she hits hard. She serves really well. But I think I just played better today.

Q. What does it mean for you to be into the semifinals of Rome?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: It's crazy, because I didn't play very well in U.S., so it was kind of tough for me. But now on clay, of course, it changed. I'm just very happy with this result.

Q. You could play either Karolina, who you're very familiar with, or Elise Mertens. Can you just talk through the challenges of playing each opponent.

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: So of course both are very tough. Karolina is playing amazing here. She won it last year. So I think she's feeling really well here.

Also Elise is playing great. Also in U.S. she played quarterfinals. It's going to be a tough match, whoever wins.

Q. I'm wondering what the emotions are going to be heading back to Paris after having so much success in that tournament last year? Have you been thinking about that for a long time now, I assume?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Yes, it was amazing last year, of course. I'm playing good here now, so I hope I'll keep it going.

Of course Paris was amazing. I had such great memories. Yeah, we will see in Paris, but I can't wait to be back and I love clay, so we will see.

Q. You have so many great Czech players. Who were you playing with during the lockdown there, and how did it work arranging all the games and everything?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: So we had this, I don't know, like theme game. We had black team and pink team. Of course we have so many girls, so we played each other like, I don't know, like four times. So it was great.

We played so many matches, of course. It was amazing, because we are playing together. We could play some great matches when we were in Czech.

Q. Four times a day you played?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: We played, like, four ties, you know. Like, yeah. So two was in Prague and two was in Prostejov, so it was also traveling around Czech, so it was kind of nice.

Q. Who else was there?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Karolina, also Kristyna, Barbora, of course. And Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova and some of the young girls also.

So we played, like, I don't know, it was like three singles and then one doubles, I think, for two days or three.

Q. Who won the most matches? Any idea?

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: I was on the black team, so I think we won the first two ties, and then we lost the two. So it was so-so.

Q. Looks pretty good here with you and Karolina. Seems like it worked.

MARKETA VONDROUSOVA: Yeah.