ROLAND GARROS

June 12, 2021

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Press Conference

B. KREJCIKOVA/A. Pavlyuchenkova

6-1, 2-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations on a great run and great final today.

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Thank you. I have to say something (smiling).

It's never easy to be a runner-up. I still have to be grateful for these two amazing weeks. I've said to my brother, really that's the case, a couple weeks ago just before the Madrid, we sat at one cafe, we were having coffee. He told me, I got you. I really believe in you. I think you can do well this year.

I said, Yeah, I also believe in me. But I feel like I need more time. I'm not fit enough yet.

Then Madrid semifinal, and now French Open final, which honestly it's unexpected to me. But, yeah, I think it's two positive weeks.

Q. Do you feel this episode will have given you more self-belief? Do you feel like it's changed you, your confidence level?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: I don't know. Now we'll see. I've had a long and tough road also getting into the final. It seemed like it was so close but so far at the same time. So I think I'm just going to continue and take it tournament by tournament, match by match. It's just how I was doing it these two weeks as well. I found myself in the final.

I think that's the key. But definitely, I mean, I believe in my game, I believe in me. I know I'm a fighter. What else do you need basically?

Q. What happened with your leg that you needed treatment towards the end of the second set? When you dropped serve in the final set in the seventh game, what happened there?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Yeah, well, my leg, I have to be honest, I wasn't mentioning because I was still in the tournament. I didn't want my opponents to hear. But the Sabalenka match, I was actually in a really bad shape physically. I don't know how I even won that match because I also had a medical treatment there, I had to wrap my leg.

I've struggled with my knees for a while, with my left knee. That caused a lot of pain in my knee after because I compensate a lot in my body. Actually in the third set during the Sabalenka match, I said to myself, If I win this match, I'm going to cry. It's such a shame, I play so good, but my body says this to me: I don't want to continue.

Yeah, the more you play, the worse it gets to my body. When I was landing on my serve, I felt a lot of pain on the back of my leg. It was almost like pulling, so I had to wrap it up. Then I lost that game 4-3 because it was against the wind. I always felt like she was pushing on my serve. I felt like I needed to do a little bit more with my serve.

She was playing with the wind. That's how I felt. I was feeling a little bit like this all the time. I don't know. I think she just played more solid and better in the end.

Q. On the match point, the last one, did you ask the umpire to check the mark or were you told it was surely called out? What happened?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: I looked at him, and then I asked him also after if he was sure it was out. Like I know in that case when a chair umpire is sure, it's like no chance to convince him that the ball was in. Yeah, he was pretty convinced it was out. Yeah, what can you do?

Q. What is the most important thing that you got for yourself by doing so well at Roland Garros?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Yeah, the most important I think is to believe in yourself. Even, like, I tell you like I didn't expect that this tournament, this Roland Garros, I'll be in the final. Again I tell you, like, physically I wasn't feeling super great, like ready 100%.

Still, because of fighting and believing, you can still achieve it. That's probably the most important. Then just go out there, compete and enjoy.

Q. You talked a little bit about the sports psychologist, the work that you were doing recently. Can you tell us a little bit more about when that started, why that started, and if you plan to continue, how it helped you?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Yeah, I definitely will continue with it. It started just before Madrid, like couple weeks before. I didn't expect that I would really feel so much better on the court. I seriously felt a little at sometimes desperate. You work hard, you do everything, but something is off all the time.

Then I just said to myself, You know what, I want to try everything. Like I want to improve my mentality. I want to improve my physical condition, my game, like everything.

When you do everything 100%, then you have no regrets. Also today I've done everything I could. She was better in the end. She was maybe more fitter, more whatever in the end. Doesn't matter. I have no questions to myself right now.

I could have done better, for sure, yes. But at this moment that's all I could do it on the court.

She just helps me to be myself on the court, as well, open up a little bit of my strong points, and also being myself off the court as well. That also helps a lot.

Q. You said on the court jokingly that your friends flew all the way in because who knows if this day is going to come again. From a serious note, what do you make of that? Does your two weeks here, making a final physically compromised, a tough draw, does this give you confidence that the major trophy is closer, or is that something you don't think about?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: No, I don't even think about it because I think there are no rules. Also who could have thought like I would be in the final now? I think I just going to keep on going the same, zero expectation, just working hard and doing my job. I know what I have to do. So that's the key. Enjoy out there, as well, keep going.

Okay, of course, I believe in myself a little bit more maybe, yes. But I always knew I think I could have done it, I could do it. I'll keep on going. Hopefully, you know, next time if I have a chance to be in the final I'll handle it better and I'll be more fresh and I'll play better. That's the goal right now.

I want to believe that the best is yet to come, so I think that's how I should approach the whole situation. I said to myself today, watching my friends, that at the start of course I was close to cry, it's always sad to lose, but then when I looked at my friends, I think there are much more important stuff in life than sometimes even this trophy.

I feel loved. I think that's the best thing you can have is friends and a life outside tennis, as well, which is actually even meant more than the trophy today.