AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 10, 2021

Bianca Andreescu

Press Conference

HSIEH SU-WEI/B. Andreescu

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What are your initial reflections on the match today?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I got off the court and I was looking at my coach, and I said, I'm just disappointed that today that was my all because I know I gave my all today and to me I think that was the most disappointing part and that was like my initial, like evaluation of the match.

She played really well. I have to give credit to her. And, yeah, I definitely have to get back into the groove of things, and hopefully that will be sooner than later.

Q. Coming up against Hsieh, she's a player that's beaten seven of the nine top-10 opponents she's faced in a slam. It's probably not someone you would like to run into early in a slam. Would that be fair to say?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, I mean, that's the sport though. You never really know who you're going to get and you just have to deal with what you got. But I did play her before in Auckland and I played really, really well that match. She also played well. So today even in those tough moments, I thought I could break her a little bit, but she was on every single ball.

So I also, to finish that answer, I had a little bit of experience of what I was going to expect and I knew she was a really, really tough opponent. She likes to change it up, all that stuff. So, yeah, I was there expecting it.

Q. After so much time off, what are the positives you can take from the last two matches and what will you go and work on next specifically?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I know that my preparation was the best preparation that I think I've ever had. So I feel confident with that.

I think now it's just getting back into play, and it's good to know that I still have that fighting spirit in me. I'm able to give it my all on the court. I think you see that more in the first match than this match, but also being healthy. I feel really good. After my first round, I thought I would feel more exhausted, but I felt amazing. Also, today the weather was a bit tricky. Being in the heart of quarantine I could have had those extra two weeks of like being in the heat and getting used to sweating and all of that. Before, I was in Dubai, so there wasn't a lot of sweating at all. But, yeah, just getting used to everything again.

Q. Playing the tournament with fans in attendance, what sort of message about hope do you think this whole endeavor sends to people who are watching all over the world?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: It's incredible to have a tennis crowd versus what we experienced a lot in 2020. It's super different. I wasn't able to experience that. I didn't play. But to come back and have that support from fans in person is just a whole different ball game. I love that. I love playing in front of big crowds. So it's super nice.

Australia and the Australian government did such a good job with containing the virus. So there is hope. If Australia can do it, then the whole world can.

Q. Wondering what your expectations were going into this tournament?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I didn't put expectations on myself. There's always unconscious expectations for sure, but verbal expectations not really. I just told myself that I want to feel good on the court, just happy to be back, injury-free after so long of not playing. But every tournament I do go into I want to do really well. I want to win. I have these goals set in my mind all the time. So I'm just going to take this as a learning curve and bounce back for the next tournament.

Q. If you could do it all again would you have played in that warmup tournament or use the approach you did during the Aussie Open?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I wouldn't have played the first tournament. It was more because of past experiences, just being off for however long, and then competing again, just, it's not a good combo.

Q. I'm just curious, obviously, it might be hard to kind of gauge a schedule after missing 15 months off, but you're such a competitor I'm sure you want to play a lot this season. How do you manage going forward in 2021 sort of, likely being eager to play a lot but knowing you have to be careful?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, I want to be careful, a hundred percent. I don't want to overdo it, even though I want to play literally every tournament there is at the moment. Like, that's just how I feel. But I have to take a step back and just reflect on everything that I've experienced in the past and make sure I make the right decisions with that experience. If I'm healthy, I'll be playing a lot, so I'll be here.

Q. I wanted to find out, what makes Su-wei such a difficult opponent? I know watching you, you fell behind early in the match. She broke you several times. How do you -- and she has such an unorthodox style. How do you go out and play an opponent like that and why do you think she's so successful in what she does?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: First of all, she has a lot of experience on the tour and she is No. 1 in doubles, and playing doubles for sure helps with your singles game in many different aspects. She's good at the net. She can come in. She can literally redirect any single ball you give her. Her serve doesn't have a lot of pace on it, but she can place it very well. The disadvantage I had today was my serve. Compared to my first round, I felt super confident considering I had, like I think it was almost 70 percent of my first serves and then 80 percent of that, I won. So going into this match, I was like, Okay, like, everything's going to be fine, and then my serve was absolute crap today. So, yeah, that didn't help. I wanted to take control right from the start, which having a good serve, putting your serve in really helps with, and then the return too. But yeah, I just, I couldn't do it today. The fact that she can change the rhythm. I know I can change rhythm too, but she's just on another level, at least today.

Q. If you could take the knowledge that you gained from this loss and go back out on the court and play her again, is there something you would do differently?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I guess my serve. If it was better, I think the match would have been a little bit different. But other than that, no. Like, just getting back into play, starting to get more consistent, more comfortable being back on court will help a lot.

Q. Obviously not what you were hoping for today, but what positives will you take from your return this week? How are you feeling about the state of your game and going forward?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I feel okay. I don't feel at my best on the court for sure, but I'm super happy that I'm finally back after being off for so long. It's just such an amazing feeling being back, doing what I love. This is a bit of a challenge, but I love me a challenge, so I'm going to do my best to get back out there and, like I said, take this as a blessing in a way and just bounce back.

Q. In response to a question earlier you were talking about how you're going to schedule going forward and if you're healthy you'll play, but you obviously want to be cautious. The caution as of right now, is it just more because you're slowly kind of putting your toe into the water to make sure that everything is a hundred percent or is there something lingering in the back of your mind at all that makes you think that you're not a hundred percent healthy?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: No, not at all. I have zero worries about my health. I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing because obviously it's working. But if I'm healthy I'm going to be playing. Obviously I want to be careful, but I will be playing.