ROLAND GARROS

September 28, 2020

Petra Kvitova

Press Conference

P. KVITOVA/O. Dodin

6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What is it like to play a player who plays so much like yourself?

PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, that's true, but she's right- handed, so that's good that we had some differences.

Yeah, definitely she plays very similar flat shots, which I'm trying a little bit with the topspin sometimes on the forehand. I'm trying. But definitely she served very well. In the second set she really started to play much better than in the first.

You know, she didn't make that many mistakes and it was really a tough one. I just really tried to stay there mentally strong and wait for the chance to break her and serve well. In the end of the match I served really well, so it was really helping me to stay and I finished the match then.

Q. Would you say your serving was key to the win today? It was pretty close, that second set, wasn't it?

PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, for sure. Even she broke me, she really had a great game over there, and was a little bit struggling.

But as I mentioned, in the end of the second set is really help me a lot. I made few aces, I made probably one or two double faults. It was really stable, the serve. I think that really I put the pressure on her on the return game.

Q. How easy will it be for you to keep smiling at Roland Garros this year with all the challenges that you will face on and off the court?

PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I hope that I'm a smiley person anyway (smiling). Doesn't matter what really happen, I gonna know the court. That's probably my mentality. I think I already been through in many, many difficult times in my life, not only on the court.

This is something what we have to deal with. Of course it's not perfect, but it's same for everybody. It's something what we just have to get used to: The court, different conditions, the balls, and everything.

Yeah, I'm healthy. That's important. Last year I had to withdraw from the Roland Garros, so this time I can get only better. And my health, it's okay, so that's important.

Q. I was just curious what your comfort level is with the protocols in place for the bio-bubble here in France.

PETRA KVITOVA: Well, yeah. It's a little bit different compared to US Open. I think we are very glad and very pleased, honestly, that we are here and we can play here, even with few spectators. I really miss them, so it's really nice that they could come. I know it's not full, but it's still better than nothing, for sure.

The bubble, yeah, that's our life right now. It's only can be (indiscernible) and better, as well, right? I'm not really complaining about anything. I'm just really glad that we are able to play at another Grand Slam this year, and that's really good news.

Q. Wanted to ask you a general question about 2020. It's obviously been a very difficult year for everybody. I just wonder for you what has been the most difficult thing about this year?

PETRA KVITOVA: Well, to be honest, I think probably it was the time when I didn't know what will happen on the tour. So I was still keeping practicing, but it was really, really tough to get motivated by myself without anything.

I'm a person who loves to play matches and have the motivation to get better, that the tournaments are there and playing better in a match.

So in that time when I didn't really know what will happen, I was so, you know, unmotivated to just play tennis. I just had to play because of my body, of my health that, you know, I don't forget everything.

But really, I wasn't really enjoying the tennis in that time. So it was really tough for me to still keep playing. So every day I did some gym, but on the court it was really struggling and I played like twice, three times per week, so it was really not much. I can imagine that any other player play like every day full.

That was really tough for me to motivated by myself.

Q. The bio-bubble, I have talked to players who are freaked out if they are in a TV studio and the hosts aren't wearing masks and I've talked to players who feel we just need to get on with our normal lives. Where do you stand on that spectrum? How worried are you about coronavirus?

PETRA KVITOVA: Well, I think it's tough to say that I'm worried about corona. Of course, I don't want to get sick, for sure. But on the other hand if I get sick, okay, I will just handle it somehow.

So, I mean, that's how it is. Struggling for whole world. Wearing the mask I think is easiest way to do it. Of course we still have to do other things, disinfect hands and stay the distance with the other people. So that's how it is right now. It's whole world, not only us. Of course it will be great to have a normal life.

It's time of the year hopefully, year, when we just have to do it, and it's not only in the tennis bubble but it's everywhere. Each sport and each work they have home offices. I don't think it's really fun in life right now for anybody.

Q. A question about the string tension that you mentioned on court in your interview. How much of a difference would you say it makes to have that one kilo lower? Also, are you a player that never does that? So is this a rare occasion that you would actually drop your string tension slightly?

PETRA KVITOVA: Yeah, you're right. I never do that. So that's really the option right now to do, because it's very cold. Well, we are not playing that cold whole year. So that's why I did it. It's just one kilo. To be honest, I don't think that I really realized it. It's just probably the mental side of it.

Yeah, the balls after a while get really big and it's not flying that much with the humid, as well. I just decided to do it how it is, and actually today was fine. I wasn't really missing that much that long out. So it was okay. So definitely I gonna keep on it if the weather is how it is.

Q. A question about the ball itself. Lowering the tension of your racquet, how much of that is the conditions and how much of that is because of the new balls? And the other question I had was about flying. None of us fly anymore. I haven't taken a plane for a long time. You tennis players are kind of amongst the last jet-setters around at the moment. When you take a plane at the moment, are you dressed in a HAZMAT suit from head to toe? Normal? How are you going about actually flying?

PETRA KVITOVA: Well, the first question, the new balls, I found them very nicely. I mean, when they are new, they are little flying, and as I mentioned these conditions with the humid and cold, after a while will get a little bit bigger. That's why I change a little bit the tension of the strings.

It's Wilson ball, so it's perfect, actually, that's my brand. Yeah, so I'm totally okay with it.

And about the flying, well, yeah, it's different, for sure. We have to wear the masks whole time in the plane. Toughest probably was traveling to USA to have it, like, all time on the flight is nothing really nice. And of course the air condition, we don't really know how it's working, if it's good or bad. It's a little bit dangerous, I would say, about the corona.

What we can do? We have to travel so we just have to be really careful. Dress, normal dress, nothing really change but I just have the masks. And I was lucky enough to get a private jet here to Paris, so that was much safer.