AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 9, 2021

Heather Watson

Press Conference

H. WATSON/Kr. Pliskova

7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk us through your match today. Quite close at certain times.

HEATHER WATSON: Yeah, it's always a tough match against Kristyna. I know her very well. We played here last year. We're the same age, grew up playing against each other in junior tournaments. She's got a really big serve. It's kind of like a men's match in that sense, always trying to hold serve, try as hard as you can to get involved in her service games.

I'm really pleased with how I played the tiebreaks. I thought I stepped up my game when I needed to and played some of my best tennis in the big moments.

Q. We had Angie Kerber in here yesterday, saying she had been in hard lockdown. She said she would have thought twice if she had known. How important was it for you to win a game today, make it worthwhile coming to Australia?

HEATHER WATSON: Yeah, absolutely. It made the victory today it sweeter because we'd been through a lot the last few weeks. It was really tough mentally I would say the most. Physically I felt like I did a pretty good job in hard quarantine of working out pretty much every day and trying to keep up my fitness with what I could do.

I think today I could see it on my coach's face as well, he was extra proud (smiling).

Q. 10 days out of hard quarantine.

HEATHER WATSON: I haven't worked it out, but I know I had 15 days in hard quarantine, then another day, so 16.

Q. How long did it take to feel normal again?

HEATHER WATSON: Since yesterday. Yesterday is the first day of practice where I felt like my game was starting to come back together. I was like, Okay, I found the timing. Yesterday was pretty much the first day. Having a Tuesday start was big, so I got lucky there. Then today I thought I played pretty well considering who I was playing because she doesn't give you much rhythm anyway.

Yeah, I was happy with how I played today.

Q. In the second set tiebreak, you were never behind, took an early lead. At 5-3, it was a crucial point. Played aggressively. Was that the key point of the match for you?

HEATHER WATSON: Yeah, that was a big point. I would say in the second set at 3-1 down I held, which was big. I managed to break back. She was 40-Love. I'd say those few games were really crucial. Then again I held after being 15-40 down to go -- I can't even remember the score. That was a really big point. I actually spoke about that point to my coach. That's what I want to do in those big moments, is bring out my best tennis, play aggressive, be the person in control.

Q. You feel physically fine afterwards?

HEATHER WATSON: Oh, I didn't feel as fit as usual, which is no surprise. Body's definitely sore. I've had an ice bath the last few days. I'm taking care of my body very carefully because actually four days ago my left leg went into spasm and I couldn't finish practicing. I was, like, really worried about if I was going to be able to play my first round here.

Also for me, I don't get injured, so it was a surprise. Expected again with what we've been through. I tried to manage that as best as possible. Fortunately it healed very quickly. Yeah, I've just got to take care of my body, do everything I can, what's in my control. That's all I can do.

Q. What were the main effects you felt after coming out of quarantine?

HEATHER WATSON: I would say I felt my body change a bit. It wasn't as when you're fit and strong, your body just feels hard. It just wasn't as hard as usual. So I would say the fitness aspect. I definitely lost some, but that's expected.

Mentally I felt super strong because I'd got through it.

Q. I wanted to ask how much during the two weeks or 16 days you were in touch with other players who were going through the same thing? Was there some sense of camaraderie there? Did you know of other players, you were in sort of touch with each other at all, trying to boost each other's spirits?

HEATHER WATSON: Actually every day Craig Tiley would host a Zoom call at 1 p.m. for all the players in hard quarantine. We'd all be on that every day. I mean, it was actually something to look forward to in the hard quarantine.

Then there would be another Zoom call at 7 p.m. just for the general people in quarantine.

So answering your question, we'd all speak together and discuss things in that Zoom call, but also, like, on my phone I spoke to a couple of players, not many. I just sort of got on with it.

I spoke to Christina McHale and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Q. Can you describe the Zoom, the one Craig organized? Was it a formal thing of him updating you? Was it a fun thing where you were joking around?

HEATHER WATSON: It was just Craig basically keeping us up to date day by day, if anything had changed. Every now and then you'd get a nice comment, a funny comment, or just a ridiculous comment from someone.

Q. Have you been making the most of the extra freedoms over here? What sort of things have you been doing away from the court?

HEATHER WATSON: So I haven't really had time to do anything because I've just been trying to catch up with training and stuff. We've been having really long days, lots of hours spent on court because I'm one of those players that needs a lot of time on court to build my fitness up.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I still want to be safe. I don't want to be put back in quarantine or put myself in a position to be put in. I'm just sort of playing it safe at the moment. The most I've done is have dinner across the road yesterday. That's the first time I've been out for dinner. We went to a place called Hunky Dory, which is a fish restaurant, and it was really nice.

Q. Do you feel like maybe you appreciate things you would have just completely taken for granted before being stuck in a hotel room for 16 days?

HEATHER WATSON: Yeah, so we've been speaking about it a lot with my coach Alex. It's things that you'd never think of, like just fresh air. We couldn't wait to get fresh air. Our hotels didn't have windows, the hotel we were at didn't. Just something so simple like that. Every time I'm in the car now on the way to Melbourne Park or back to the hotel, I always make sure I open the window just to have fresh air.

Just space. Like instead of being in a room, space. Yeah, those are the two things I probably appreciate the most.