OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

August 11, 2021

Rebecca Marino

Press Conference

R. MARINO/P. Badosa

1-6, 7-5, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Walk us through your match earlier today and tell us how you're feeling about your performance.

REBECCA MARINO: Sure. Obviously I'm very excited to pull off the win today. I started off maybe a little bit nervous and couldn't quite find my rhythm in that first set. After the first set I decided, you know what, this is a clean slate, I need to start fresh. That didn't happen. Almost tricked myself.

I slowly found my rhythm, started getting comfortable again in that second set. That's what allowed me to stay in it.

By the time we got to the third, I was feeling really confident and finally was able to close it out.

Really, really proud of that performance for turning it around and obviously for reaching the third round here.

Q. You're playing a lot of tennis at this tournament. You got the doubles win this evening, as well. How are you feeling physically?

REBECCA MARINO: Oh, yeah, I'm okay. Most tournaments lately this year I've been trying to play a lot of doubles, too. That kind of comes with the territory. If you're going to play both events, you're going to play a lot of tennis.

What I'm going to focus on is getting the best recovery I can and prepare myself for a long day again tomorrow.

But body's feeling good. No worries on that part. I feel really fit. This is what I train for, so...

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about how you're feeling heading into tomorrow's matchup with the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

REBECCA MARINO: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm the underdog in all these matches. I feel like I can't sell myself short. I'm just going to, again, try to step up to the plate, do my best against her. Yeah, a bit of a tall order. If I just come and play my A game, I feel like I can stand with all these girls.

I'll just give it my best shot like I have been all the other matches.

Q. When did you feel that you could be able to change the course of the match and get it your way? Is there a point in particular in the match or something else that happened that made you think you were on your way?

REBECCA MARINO: Honestly it was during the break between the first set and the second set. I have this self-belief. I know I have the game to get there. It was just a matter of finding it.

Maybe the first game, second game of that second set, just sort of feeling present in the moment, just focusing on the rhythm, getting in the rallies. I don't think there was any one specific moment. It was more just, like, yeah, the idea of a clean slate, like I said before.

Q. Can you say a couple of words about the match in doubles, the fact you are playing with Leylah. What can you say about that match in particular?

REBECCA MARINO: Oh, gosh, I love playing with Leylah. When she actually asked me to play here, I was so excited for that opportunity. We played together before, so we're very familiar.

She's just a hard worker, a kind girl. It's a fun dynamic on court to play with someone familiar. A good athlete. You know, we were able to win in that third set tiebreaker. I think we were both pretty happy and just enjoyed the experience overall.

Q. Where do you place this victory out of all the ones you had since the beginning of your career? And do you have a coach with you this week?

REBECCA MARINO: In terms of placing this victory, I don't know if I can put it numerically. Anytime you can beat a girl who's in the top 100, top 50, it's something to sort of feel good about, particularly as I'm building my ranking back up. So it's up there. I'm not sure I can really place it. But I'm proud of it regardless.

In terms of coach, I actually don't have my own coach here. Sylvain Bruneau has been helping me just because he's the women's national coach, but he's not my personal coach at all. I feel really supported by him.

And our Fed Cup captain, our Billie Jean Cup captain, Heidi El Tabakh, is also here. My boyfriend is here. We have a fitness coach for Tennis Canada, Virginie Tremblay. Those are the people in my box.

My coaches primarily are back home, Roberto (indiscernible) and Oded Jacob. They're sending me a lot of messages from home, but no one here with me specifically, just that support team.

Q. With the win over Madison, then obviously today over Paula, what do these two wins mean to you?

REBECCA MARINO: Oh, gosh, I mean, well, the first win of course is very exciting because it's like, Wow, I got a top 50 win, a top 30 win. To back it up with another win today sort of demonstrates it wasn't -- sort of I'm not -- it wasn't a one-time sort of thing. So, yeah, it's nice to get that back-to-back win. I feel like I'm no longer a surprise; everyone sort of knows who I am.

At least it demonstrates to me I belong back at this level. I really believe that. Now I have the evidence.

Q. Obviously your story has been written up across the board in terms of your comeback. At this point is this a new page? Is that all still kind of part of your story as it currently unfolds, if that makes sense? Is this kind of a new thing for you?

REBECCA MARINO: In terms of? I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly.

Q. Obviously leaving the game in 2012, your struggles with mental health, depression, things like that, then coming back. There's one instinct that says that chapter is closed, and another that would say this is just a continuation of all of that. I'm curious what your take is on that.

REBECCA MARINO: In a sense, I feel like, you know, the past is the past. Like mental health and the depression, that's not even something I think about in terms of my every day. I feel like I've worked really hard to get to this point.

But I always do find it funny when people mention the mental health thing because I'm totally in a different place than where I was before, which I'm really proud of. So it is a new chapter in a sense.

But, I mean, it's a pretty cool story overall. So I think it's all sort of a continuation. I want to keep seeing what cool things I can do in the future.

Q. Back to your singles match today. Can you talk about your serve in the first set. It seemed you couldn't get anything going on your serve. Can you explain what was going on?

REBECCA MARINO: I feel like through the whole match actually I wasn't serving as well as I could, particularly in comparison to the match with Keys. At least I was able to prove to myself, prove to others that I don't have to have my serve in order to pull off a win like that. I can revert to really solid return games. I have a pretty good second serve, so I have the game to back it up.

That's something I would like to improve, is to have a higher first-serve percentage, as well as place my serves a little bit better. That was something a little bit lacking, but at least I have a lot of other tools to work with.

Q. Talking about your serve, are you the kind of player who decides where to serve during the toss or are you thinking about that one or two weeks before a tournament?

REBECCA MARINO: My serve, where I place my serve?

Q. Yes.

REBECCA MARINO: I mean, I think about that as I'm stepping up to the line. As I'm doing my ball bounce, I kind of look over and see, I'm feeling my T serve, my wide serve, whatever it is.

It's not random. I think about certain patterns, like if I want to follow it up with a forehand, that sort of thing. There is tactics, but it's pretty much right at the line, depending where the score is.

Q. Do you think you can go all the way in this tournament because I think you can.

REBECCA MARINO: Thank you.

Gosh, I mean, I have to just keep it one match at a time right now. I do believe in myself, in my game, so that is there. If I can make it all the way, that would be amazing.

Quite realistically I just need to focus on the next match ahead. There's an awful lot of good players. Particularly the next match will be a big challenge. We'll start with that. How about that?

Q. Probably a question you've been asked in the past. When you retired years ago, you said that you were bullied on the web. I was wondering if you're still going through this, if it still happens today, and how you deal with this if it's the case?

REBECCA MARINO: I mean, I feel like every player will receive on their social media some sort of messages. If you click on anyone's profile, photo, you're going to see some comments. So, sure, I mean, that still happens. I feel like my past experience has prepared me for where I am right now. I kind of laugh it off and disregard it.

I try to be really careful with my social media. I have it deleted off my phone right now. If I ever need to post something, quickly I do it, turn it off.

I'm in tournament mode, try to be professional about that. I'm not concerned about it. It's not really an issue anymore.