AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 9, 2021

Belinda Bencic

Press Conference

B. BENCIC/L. Davis

6-3, 4-6,6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Was it a case of a sigh of relief or a great steppingstone to lead you into the rest of the tournament?

BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a relief. I think it was far from what I wanted, but it's something that I expected. I expected not to play great.

Yeah, you know, at times it was extremely frustrating because I know how I can play, but I cannot show it. Even in the practice I didn't quite get it as I wanted to. I tried to practice well, but definitely didn't feel like the ball yet and just not feeling well yet with my tennis-wise.

I still have a heart on court and I try to use it. I definitely tried to fight with what I have, which wasn't much today. At least I was able to pull it off. It's, yeah, relieving. Some parts of this game was, yeah, very frustrating. Still really happy and relieved.

Q. Can you go back to what you've been through for the first two weeks, now shaking the monkey out of your back, how does that feel?

BELINDA BENCIC: Yeah, I mean, it feels good. We all accept quarantine. It's something we had to do. Of course, it's the right thing. We don't want anything to spread here into the community, so it was the right thing to do, for sure.

It's just very unfortunate for some players it happened, for some didn't. Definitely feeling is right now it's not easy. It's like if you go on a holiday, then you return to the court. Especially now it's Australian Open.

Yeah, it's very difficult to go just quickly back to where you were. Just taking it step by step. I'm accepting the fact I'm probably not going to be able to show good tennis, watchable tennis. Just fighting with what I have.

Of course, the body feels worse, the tennis feels worse, the reaction, the instincts, everything is worse. But I'm still here. I'm trying to fight with what I have.

I think this is going to be my attitude. Yeah, hopefully I can...

Q. How many games will it take you to feel like you want to be in a normal world?

BELINDA BENCIC: It depends. I don't think you can say how many games. If you're doing a good preparation, then you come here and you keep preparing, of course you feel much better than if it's interrupted like this.

I don't know how many games it will take me. It's hard to say. It's hard to practice here, as well. You don't get as much court time as you would like. At home I practice for four or five hours a day, which here it's not possible.

I don't know. I will just accept the fact whatever time it will take. I just have to take this time and just accept it. There's nothing I can do about it. I'll just try to do the best to keep improving.

Q. Social media, you seemed to have a dilemma yesterday choosing your outfit.

BELINDA BENCIC: I think the most people voted for the white one, so I took the white one (smiling).

I think it's a nice collection. I was really happy about it. I wanted the fans to kind of interact and help me what I should wear because I think it's a pretty important topic for women's tennis player. I like on-court outfits. I definitely love Nike collection.

Yeah, I was really happy about it. They voted for the white and gold, so I kind of married these two.