ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

February 22, 2021

Ashleigh Barty

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What have you been doing these past few days to regroup after the Australian Open?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, it's important to allow time for the body and the mind to rest and recover and like we do through every tournament, whether it's a Grand Slam or a tour event, we debrief after the event. I go through a tape, take our experiences, the positive side of it and take our learnings and then we move on pretty quickly.

Q. What was your learning out of that quarter-final loss? Was it one of more painful losses to go through?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: All losses are tough. None are painful. I think I'm extremely grateful, I'm very lucky to be in a position where I get to play a sport for a living. So I think for me there's only positives to gain from it, the learnings are positive, and we come into another opportunity here this week in Adelaide where we have a place where we have had great memories before, obviously just a few weeks ago playing here was fantastic as well. So it's really nice to be back here and having another opportunity to play again.

Q. I know the organizers weren't completely confident that you would come here and play. What convinced you to come play this one and defend your title?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: It's an extremely great event. I had spoken to Ali throughout the last couple months knowing that obviously after the Australian Open we weren't sure what the calendar was going to look like and what we were going to do. A lot was going to depend on how my body felt. So I'm extremely grateful to have an opportunity to play here and defend my title. Obviously it's somewhere where I've had such good memories.

But happy to be back now and get an opportunity to start again.

Q. How is the body?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: The body's great. We feel like we, every time I walk out to the court I'm fit, I'm ready to play, and I have absolutely no concerns with it whatsoever. So I'm happy to be back here. We'll get on the practice court today and get back to work and then look forward to playing whenever we're scheduled.

Q. The strapping we saw through out the Australian Open does it come out again or have you recovered from that?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: We'll see how we go. Not quite sure yet, but like I said, during AO a lot of it was more assistance to help out. I was pain-free during the matches which is a really important thing for me. And just having that little bit of assistance through the taping allowed me to be pain-free.

Q. Did you watch the women's final and what was your feelings watching it?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: No, I didn't watch it. I'm not a massive tennis watcher in the best of times and certainly haven't turned on the telly for the last three or four weeks. Obviously I've seen the result, but I didn't watch it, so it's hard for me to know what happened.

Q. Because you spoke to Naomi. She's a similar age and dominated the last few Grand Slams. Do you feel there could be a long-term rivalry there. Is that something you're looking forward to?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: I've only played her a couple times. We haven't played a lot. Obviously it's depending on how the draw falls in a lot of tournaments. So hopefully it's an opportunity for me to play against her in some big moments in big tournaments. That's what we dream of is trying to put yourself in position to win big titles. So maybe it will happen one day but for the time being that's not what I'm stressed about.

Q. Still World No. 1 ranking. You've had it for a long time now even though you haven't played much. How tough is it playing with that extra pressure of being World No. 1?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: There's no extra pressure. The extra pressure is non-existent for me. It's just trying to go about my business and my training, my processes the right way for what works for me and my team. And that's all that matters to us really is that we go about it the right way and make the right decisions for the right reasons and then we sleep well at night regardless of what happens next to our name.

Q. I would imagine you're a very competitive person to be as successful as you are. Is it in the back of your mind though that someone like Naomi Osaka is closing in? You have a lot of points to defend these first six months of the year.

ASHLEIGH BARTY: No, no, it's not something that crosses my mind. I can't control what anyone else does. For the tournaments or with the rankings, that's out of my control. As for defending points, I think that's a very negative way to look at it. It's obviously I go back to tournaments knowing that I've had successes there. I've had good memories. And we go back there and we start from scratch. Every tournament you have to start from scratch and there are no certainties in sports, so I just go about it the best that I can on that given day and that's all I can do.

Q. You might play Danielle Collins again in your first opening round. It's a pretty tough draw here. Do you feel like you are playing as good as you were last year to defend this title?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, I think they have to play this evening, I think it is. So obviously it's a match that they have to play to determine the results. So I won't focus on who that opponent may or may not be until the results are done and then we prepare for whoever it is. But it's an exceptionally tough draw here in Adelaide. I think Ali's done a fantastic job of bringing people back to Adelaide. I think it's pretty positive among the players. Everyone enjoyed being here. They enjoyed the set up and wanted to come back and be a part of the event once again. So I think that's something that's been really well done by the tournament to actually bring a lot of players back here.

Q. How far out to you plan and can you plan, like, what's your next step?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: We plan as best as we can. Obviously in the current situation nothing's certain. It's difficult to plan, without a doubt, but we just go with the advice that we have been given. We trust that the situation that we're going into is the right situation, it's been deemed safe, and all the right protocols have been put in place. So for the time being we focus on this week and we focus on where we are and what we're trying to achieve this week and then we move on to the schedule a little bit later on.

Q. Is the French Open and Wimbledon a priority for you?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Oh, I think every -- that's such a long way off. Of course I would love to be back on tour full-time, and all those decisions will come as close as we can to the events, but also as far out to try and plan a schedule and plan a tour. So I think it's hard for me to comment right now on those tournaments in particular. There's a long way between now and then, but of course I would absolutely love to be there.

Q. (No microphone.)

ASHLEIGH BARTY: You'll have to ask them. I'm just a fan. I enjoy it, but I think, yeah, ask them and you'll get more intel.

Q. I was wondering just with Jen, obviously you know her very well, what was your reaction to her being able to make her first major final and just any thoughts on that accomplishment for her?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, I was absolutely rapt for her. Genuinely pumped. She's such a brilliant person off the tennis court and then I think on the tennis court she's a superstar. So I think once -- I spoke to her throughout the tournament, obviously, but once she made the final I flicked her a message and then sent her a message as well after the match.

But she's a fantastic professional, she really is. She definitely belongs to be at the latter end of the big tournaments and I'm so happy for her that she's being able to experience that and kind of know that she belongs there.

Q. Taking a step back and looking ahead, even though obviously it's difficult to plan, but what are you looking forward to the most about kind of getting back into the swing of things, being on the tour, competing on a more regular basis, what is it that excites you about it?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, I think what excites me the most is being able to do what I love on a regular basis and being able to do it week in, week out. Go through all of the emotions that comes with being a professional athlete. With being a tennis player obviously you have some incredible moments, you have some tough moments and I think that's all the work that you do in between week in week out is what I've kind of missed the most. So I think hopefully we get to do that this year, we get to do it soon and kind of start again, which was a massive reason why we wanted to play here in Adelaide this week was to continue that momentum that we built through the last month here in Australia and playing Australia's always something that I love to do, I'm never shy for saying that, so I think another opportunity to play in Australia, to play in front of fans here in Adelaide is going to be awesome.

Q. A question about doubles. Are you planning on playing a lot of doubles this year, not that much doubles this year, what kind of that side of the game, how are you going to approach it?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: I still love doubles. I love to play it. I think if I could play every single week, if my body would allow me to play every single week and every single match I would in a heartbeat. So I think it's going to be, it's always going to be an important part of my career, it always has been.

I enjoy playing doubles, it's a way to get some extra practice in on some specifics on the match conditions, but also at times I want to prioritize my singles. I want to be allowing my body to rest and recover and prepare as best as I can to go well in singles events and it's a mix that I need to try and find the right formula for, but I feel like we have done a pretty good job of it over the last few years of finding that mix.

So it will still be a part of my schedule without a doubt, but a lot will depend on making sure that I'm fit and healthy and able to do singles and to prepare for singles in a way where I feel comfortable.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, Ash.

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Thanks, guys.