US OPEN

September 8, 2021

Karolina Pliskova

Press Conference

M. SAKKARI/Ka. Pliskova

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on the match.

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I thought she played very good match, very solid. Of course, I didn't get many chances on her serve which was a bit frustrating because I didn't have many matches like this.

My serve was so-and-so today. But just one break in each set. I thought maybe if I could have held the serve a bit longer, maybe I could have more chances than I had.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you feel like there's anything you could have done better today?

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: No, I mean, of course disappointed, but it's not like it would be really in my hands, this match.

As I said, I didn't have any chances on her serve. I don't think I played the best tennis today. I don't think I was serving the way I was serving the last couple matches which you have to serve against opponents like this because she doesn't give you much for free.

I was actually not surprised because I know she's playing well, and we had one practice before this tournament. But I was quite surprised she was really going for her shots. I know she can be also, like, maybe passive at some times. She was not really. Even the match point, I thought she really went for it, playing really fast. Not many chances for me to play what I would love to play.

Of course, credit to her. Yeah, not really the tennis which I wanted to play.

Q. What do you make of the last couple of months in terms of your season? What positives do you take away?

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: A lot of tennis definitely. Excited to go back home after a couple months. It's been, like, super long trip. I think the longest ever which I made.

Overall this year I thought it was like never-ending year. We have couple more tournaments, which is good, but I just somehow thought it was a lot of tennis, a lot of tournaments, a lot of traveling.

Actually because I played pretty well, like, in the summer, I didn't have really chances and days off where I could really rest, maybe switch off a bit from tennis. Maybe there's going to be the time now because depends what we decide to play.

Overall I think super happy about the last couple months how I played because the first part of the year was not the best. It was not so easy. Just happy that I managed to find the way back to good tennis.

Q. How do you see the next couple weeks?

KAROLINA PLISKOVA: I mean, we have to talk because we are still waiting if Sascha is going to have the visa, whether he can go to America or not. Everything is going to go about this, so I want to see if he can travel with me or not.

Then, of course, there is one more big tournament, Indian Wells. There is Fed Cup. There is couple more weeks which I still want to play because I like to play tournaments. Because I'm playing good tennis right now, I think it would be good to play. I can finish the year maybe even better than I am right now. There are still plenty of points in the game.

But right now it's tough to say. I think I just need couple days off to relax a bit. Of course, there is a tournament in Czech. I will have to see if I play this one.