AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 10, 2021

Garbine Muguruza

Press Conference

G. MUGURUZA/L. Samsonova

6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Difficult conditions out there today. Talk us through how the match went from your perspective.

GARBINE MUGURUZA: So today was finally like a Melbourne day. Was hot. I am very happy the way I played. I had an opponent that I didn't know much. We haven't met before. It's not often that you play someone you don't know anything about.

I was happy that I got the first set. That was a tight set. Then in the second set I kind of knew more about her game and took the lead early, then could close it in two sets. With this heat and everything, I was happy it didn't got complicated and long.

Q. What sort of hope do you hope to give fans around the world by having this tournament, you being in it, there being fans in the stands?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: I said it already in the tournament that we played before, the WTA that they held here, that I was so excited to step on the court and have crowd. I really thanked everybody that came to watch us play because after almost not a full year, but quite the whole year last year empty, it felt really different.

The lack of just energy that we felt, energy that the crowd gave us, the nerves, the excitement to go and play. When I step on the court and we had crowd, even if it's against me, just to have crowd, I was already excited.

Q. What message do you hope having this tournament with fans sends to people around the world?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: That's a tricky question because Australia is kind of in a bubble compared to the world. I mean, they went through hard lockdown, the whole people here. They did great. Now they don't have any COVID case in the country. That was because they were early, they worked hard and they kind of cleaned. No one has the virus.

But this is not the case in the other parts of the world. I mean, of course it's great that they are doing an event and there is no risk and there's crowd. That's excellent. But I'm not sure in other parts of the world they're going to be able to do this because it's not free of COVID.

For me of course it's great. But without any risk, I don't know how they're going to do it. That's my concern.

Q. A little bit of a tricky start to a slam to have to play back-to-back matches without an off day because you got the Tuesday start. Did that make anything more complicated or change anything about your preparation for the Australian Open?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: Honestly no. I just had to adapt. I had the day off after the tournament, after the final. I had that day off. When you reach the second round, there is a day that you kind of have to play back-to-back. It depends which half you are. It is not something new to me. I just felt like, Okay, this is how I have to do this year. You don't have to go through two matches back-to-back, then I would get the 48 hours for my next round.

I was just kind of match after match after match, like a regular tournament kind of.

Q. Now that those two matches are done, are you able to slip into regular slam mode? Is it going to feel more normal going forward now?

GARBINE MUGURUZA: I feel like yes. I feel like now it's a Grand Slam mode. The part I like about the Grand Slams also is that you get a day of competition and a day of rest, a day of competition. I think that really helps players to recover, to have time to prepare, whatever.

Yeah, now I'm happy I have a day kind of, a normal day at a Grand Slam off, yeah, just to get ready for my next round.