ROLAND GARROS

October 3, 2020

Laura Siegemund

Press Conference

L. SIEGEMUND/P. Martic

6-7, 6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just talk through that match and how you were able to mount that comeback from a set down?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Was very tactic match. Yeah, she's a very specific player. I haven't played her in a long time. I don't know if I played her before, so I was kind of looking what happens. Of course I had an idea, but I felt like we were both really trying to play tactically.

I had my chances. I had a really good start in the first set. I feel I should have done much more out of that set. I kind of left some, you know, chances there also to not make the 3-All, you know, but to go further ahead.

And then in the end, you know, it was a good match I think. You can lose that first set in the tiebreaker, was close then, but I felt like, that was a bit unnecessary.

But, you know, it happens. I tried to stay composed and had some problems with serving at the end of the second set, so was focusing on fixing that.

And then, yeah, I knew I had to find solutions for returning better. You know, I had better ideas in the second set and was able to continue that throughout the third also.

Q. Is there anything about or to the idea of kind of having the good vibes from New York, kind of finishing off that section of the season in a winning way, and then coming into the next slam so quickly? Any of that carrying over at all, or is this just really about the tennis, about how well you're playing here in Paris?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Yeah, I think more the latter. I mean, of course it's a great feeling to win a slam. Doesn't matter in which competition, I guess. If it's singles, mixed, or doubles.

But then you come here. It's completely different. Change of surface. I feel rather than it's a hard change that it's really tough to manage and to handle than, you know, you having that positivity, yeah, but then you get caught with all these problems suddenly, you know.

So I feel it's more that that I just try to see it from zero and knew I was going to have to, you know, find my clay court game quickly here and then manage those hard circumstances. That's what I have been doing.

If you play well, you move on. If you struggle, you know, you lose. That's as simple as it is.

Q. Speaking on kind of the different things that you have had to adjust to, and everybody has had to adjust to, in the clay season this year, there have been quite a number of players, including yourself, making the round of 16 for the first time at a slam or Roland Garros here. I'm curious from your perspective, do you think that has to do with the fact that there are so many variables kind of for all the players going into this? What do you think might be leveling the field a little bit this year?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Yeah, I think that's really a phenomenon this year. And in my personal opinion is, first of all, it's great. You know, we see some new things happen. So that's great. Including me, I'm happy about that.

But I think it's, first of all, not everyone came out of this corona phase in the same way. Some people chose to play a lot right after. Some selected very few tournaments to play. And lacking match practice and having matches, that levels things a lot. Even the really great names struggled, and you saw a lot of close matches, because everyone was a bit struggling with their form and finding their form.

And then the other thing is that quick change of surfaces, getting no rhythm. You know, you feel you arrive on hard. A week later it's clay again. You arrive there. Finally find your groove. You have to change to hard again. I think that's not easy, and I think that levels it out.

I think it's exciting to see some new people. But of course, yeah, I think it's a better chance -- and that's proving what we are seeing in the results. It's a better chance for less good-ranked players to make some good results.

Q. Just getting this far in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the age you are, do you think that helps you to appreciate it more, to enjoy it more, than if you had done it when you were 18 or 19 or something?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Possibly, yes. That is the case. I mean, I am appreciating it a lot.

I do feel a little bit that, you know -- I feel like in the last weeks I'm doing the things and having the results, the title at the US Open, and also coming here far, you know, I'm a good clay-court player, and I knew I could do well here.

I had a tough injury at a time where maybe I could have done good here. And I feel like I'm collecting some things on the way that I knew I could do, you know. I knew I'm a good doubles player and maybe I can win a major. I didn't know it's the first shot I get that I win a slam. But I knew I had the ability.

Now I'm playing well on clay in Paris, and I knew I have that ability, but you have to create opportunities and then you have to take them also and make them. That's what I'm doing.

It feels like it could have come earlier, but it's now. And I'm a granny now (smiling). But I'm appreciating it a lot. I worked hard for it, yeah.

Q. When you were younger, say, 22, 23, 24, did you think then that you had the possibility that you could go and win a Grand Slam?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: No, no, no, at that time I was simply not playing good enough. I think I had some milestones in my career where I just maybe having, you know, winning that one match or the other could have created a confidence that could have brought me further. But there was just so many limitations to my game that, you know, I eliminated throughout, I don't know, a long period of time, and now I have the game, you know, to have better results.

But back then I didn't miss opportunities. I didn't create them because my game was not good enough.

Q. Just looking ahead, you'll play Paula Badosa next. I don't know if you're familiar with her as an opponent, but what would it mean -- first, what is the challenge, if you do know, of playing her? What would it mean for you to make a slam quarterfinal?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: I know her as a player, and we practice. I played a match against her, yeah, in the small tournament in Karlsruhe. She's a good clay-court player, and I think it would be also mattering the physics now.

I try not to look very much ahead and jump -- if's a quarterfinal, if it's whatever it is, I try to really stay in the moment and try to make the most of the game that I have right now.

I was doing a really good job in solving problems this week, and that's what I have to stay in. Yeah, I want to have better starts into matches. That's what I did today was better. There is always something you can do better, and I'm really trying to stick to that and not jump ahead with the mind where I want to go.

Of course everyone wants to go in a quarterfinal, semifinal, win the tournament. But it's the small steps on the what you have to focus on, and that's a good recovery now and, you know, finding my game early in the next match.