AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 5, 2021

Francesca Jones

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Just talk about how exciting it is for you to be here and have qualified in Dubai for the Australian Open main draw.

FRANCESCA JONES: I probably shouldn't say this but I was most excited by getting out to restaurants and eating as many different cuisines as possible. But yeah, no, I'm actually excited to be over here. It's my first time in Melbourne, and I'd heard great things before, and obviously I'm experiencing it in a different way to previous years, but nevertheless it's still very special for this to be my first slam. Yeah, looking forward to it.

Q. Are you aware of the draw?

FRANCESCA JONES: Yes, yes, I am. I received a message like 30 minutes ago with who I was playing, so yeah, Shelby Rogers.

Q. What are your thoughts on playing Shelby Rogers? She took Ash Barty to three sets today.

FRANCESCA JONES: Look, of course she's played a great match today against Ash. I'll be watching that for sure over the weekend. She's had some very good results recently.

Ultimately here I think I'm an uncomfortable draw for many players, and I'll do my best to take advantage of the rhythm that I've created so far. Look, I'm here to put my best game on the court and see where that takes me. Shelby is a great player, a lot of experience, and I guess most people would say I'm a young gun coming in with nothing to lose. It's going to be a great matchup and a great match to play.

Q. She's probably not going to know anything about how you play or anything like that.

FRANCESCA JONES: I'm sure there's video somewhere that she'll find. But yeah, I'm obviously new to the -- this is new territory for me, so it's quite nice to be kind of the dark horse here.

Q. There's a sort of fascination with your story and the things you've needed to overcome to this point.

FRANCESCA JONES: Well, I'm very aware of it simply because of the media I've got planned for the rest of the day. No, I mean, it's great to be here and to be able to get my message across, which is please don't have any limits and keep pushing yourself. Do what it is that you want to do and just commit to it.

Look, if I can have any positive impact on children, adults, and they can take strength from my story and create their own, then that would be great. So it's nice to have the platform here.

My objectives are bigger than just qualifying for here, and hopefully I can continue to spread the word over the years.

Q. How much more difficult has it been for you, given your condition?

FRANCESCA JONES: I think every human being faces their own challenges, you know. I don't want to put myself in the spotlight and say, Oh, I've gone through X, Y and Z. Every human being has barriers that they have to find a way to get over. I've had my barriers and I'm still challenged by those barriers and I'm still working my way to get over them and move on to the next.

Q. What are some of those barriers that you're facing, those challenges that you're facing from day-to-day, and how do you handle those sort of situations?

FRANCESCA JONES: Well, I guess some of the obvious barriers when I was a child were balance and just the way that I would put weight through my feet, and obviously grip, needed to have quite a few modifications done to my racquets when I was a child and still do today. I'm very grateful. I have a great sponsor, Wilson, who do what they can to accommodate me and I've been with them for a good few years now.

In terms of the day-to-day, as I've said previously, every athlete faces their challenges. I have strengths and I have weaknesses, and I work on my weaknesses like the next female tennis player that walks in here will, as well.

It's just progress, a work in progress that I'm constantly trying to evolve.

Q. Excuse me if this is too personal to ask, but do you have to get constant treatment? Are you on any sort of medication to get you through? Is there a pain barrier or anything like that? I'm sorry if that's personal.

FRANCESCA JONES: Medication is mental strength. It's just making sure that I keep myself in the right head space. I have a great support team around me. I have doctors and physios that look after me at the LTA and the National Tennis Center just outside London. I'm on the PSP program which provides me great support on the medical side.

I've had unbelievable physios in Barcelona where I've been based for the last 10 years that give me everything. Yes, I do receive a lot of treatment. I have to look after my hips because of the way that I put weight through my feet and my shoes. It's important that I look after the rest of my body that may try and compensate for some of those deficiencies.

As I say, every player has to look after themselves on a day-to-day basis. This is a full-time job.

Q. (On whether she doubts herself.)

FRANCESCA JONES: I feel like if you really want to commit yourself to something, of course you have doubts. It would be unrealistic for me to sit here and say that I've had doubts that I would become a professional tennis player, but I have never doubted that I would be a professional tennis player as a result of my syndrome. I have doubted that I would be a professional tennis player as a result of my ability, as a result of my serve, my forehand, my backhand, the doubts that every professional tennis player encounters on their journey to the top.

I have never doubted that I will give up. I want to be persistent. I want to just give everything I can, and if the result is not what I set it out to be, at least I won't have regrets.

Q. What was it like when you found out you qualified?

FRANCESCA JONES: Like right in the moment or like an hour after when I had like 100 WhatsApp notifications? I didn't know I knew that many people, to be honest. No, I think it's been an interesting couple of weeks. Suddenly in that moment I just wanted to call my parents. My parents have invested everything, their energy, financially they've put a lot into me, and I have goosebumps just saying that. I just wanted to call them. It's a shame that they can't come here and share it with me, but I'm sure they'll be staying up at home with my dog and watching when I do play Shelby, which I don't know when it is yet.

Q. Does your name hide a passion for Italy or something like that?

FRANCESCA JONES: I'm not Italian, but I definitely was Italian in my previous life, let me tell you. I will be going for pasta the night before my match because I'm allowed those carbs my evening before, so my nutritionist will allow me to indulge in some pasta here in Melbourne. But Italy is probably my favorite country and I absolutely adore the language. I can't say I don't like Italian guys, either.

So no, I definitely love Italy, but we have absolutely no connection as you can tell by probably my strong northern accent. It's all British over here.

Q. Did you get some summer clothes. I know you were packing a bit wintry?

FRANCESCA JONES: You were talking to Catherine previously. I just got my transport from the shops now. Yeah, I had the day off today as we were expecting rain here in Melbourne, so I took advantage of my day off today, and I have done a little bit of shopping. But trying to rein it in a little bit and remind myself that you don't just start buying everything that you see. Yeah, but it's been -- I definitely needed pajamas. That was the main thing. I only brought one pair of pajamas with me.

Q. What are your ambitions?

FRANCESCA JONES: I want to fulfill my potential, whatever that potential is, putting in the work day-in and day-out, making sure that I'm listening to the people around me, taking the best advice I can and see where that takes me. I do have big ambitions but I'm sharing probably a big objective with the rest of the players that are in this draw. For now it's just making sure that I'm doing everything I can to achieve that on a daily basis.

Q. Bringing up the point about the qualifying --

FRANCESCA JONES: I thought it was going to be about shopping.

Q. It can be. When you won your qualifying, to qualify, and you spoke to your parents, the emotion of that; were they or you almost in tears with what you've achieved? And just on the name, did they tell you why they chose Francesca for you?

FRANCESCA JONES: So regarding the phone call, they were pretty emotional. I'm sure my dog was very confused as to what was happening.

But yeah, as I've said, they've put a lot into this and we've made sacrifices as a family. I moved to Barcelona when I was 10. My parents didn't move with me. There have been a lot of sacrifices, but my feet are very much on the ground. My ranking so far won't have jumped too much and I'm still very focused on the process and the stepping-stones that I still have to jump over.

Yeah, it was emotional for my parents for sure, but I definitely was still being realistic about the situation.

And in terms of Francesca, I'm pretty sure my parents -- my mom told me that one of her clients had a daughter called Francesca and they just liked the sound of the name. It's just as simple as that, really. I wish I could give you a better story.

Q. You talked there about the media attention, which obviously you've had a lot of. Have you had any comments from other players? Has anyone come up to you and talked to you about what you've achieved?

FRANCESCA JONES: Well, funnily enough, a few years ago at Wimbledon, Timea Bacsinszky - I don't want to mispronounce her name - but she actually came over to me and said what she thought I was doing was phenomenal and I had all her support and that was pretty awesome. I've actually kept that really close to my heart in the last few years because at the time she was a top ranked player and I thought that was a really nice detail from her.

And then yeah, Sloane Stevens has been pretty awesome, too. She had a little chat with me in the changing rooms the other day.

Yeah, I mean, I haven't spoken to many, I suppose, but I do know quite a few people here on the tour. I've seen them before, and I guess for me, I am just another player here with a very similar objective to the others at the end of the day.

Q. What is the most difficult challenge you have had in your life as a tennis player and as a person?

FRANCESCA JONES: Probably the challenge that every human has when they commit to a job: Just making sure -- I guess everyone is nervous as to whether what they're going to do or what they're doing is going to be successful. I think ultimately just being anxious to see what the end result will be.

I think that's just a general barrier that humans face. I am just a human being that's set out an objective that I want to achieve, and I'm doing what I can to get there.

I don't think I've had anything significant. One of the things that you could say is connected to tennis, I suppose, is just not being with my parents as often as your standard child in their childhood.