US OPEN

August 31, 2021

Ashleigh Barty

Press Conference

A. BARTY/V. Zvonareva

6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: If you could just tell us your thoughts on the match and your level of play right now.

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, obviously a tough one against Vera straight up. She's an experienced campaigner. She knows how to get herself into matches. I think all in all, adapting to conditions was a little bit slower than I probably would have liked. We're through. We have another chance to improve on that in the next round.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It was kind of a tale of two matches. First set, you thoroughly dominated. One game at 3-1 where it was ace, ace, ace. Forehand winner. Very clean. Second set was obviously very different. Do you take pleasure in that kind of easy dominating set, or in figuring out how to win when your opponent has adapted to you and you have to solve the puzzle to get to the next step?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, I mean, like I said, Vera without a doubt she's an experienced campaigner and she understood what she was doing in the first set wasn't working for her and she was able to adapt and to change that.

I think in the first set I served exceptionally well. She was a little bit loose off her racquet and she gave me a few cheapies. And in the second, the 2-1 game serving and 5-4 game serving I just played two poor service games. She was able to take advantage of some second serves and a few cheapies from my end.

I think all in all being able to work my way around that and kind of get through that in straight sets was really pleasing. I think when my back was against the wall late in that buster, I came up with some really good stuff.

That's all we can ask is when your back is against the wall, you trust yourself, you go out there and pick your spots and hit them.

Q. What happened at the time in the match when play stopped and you were having a chat with the chair umpire?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: One of the cameras went down. They just needed to adjust that to make sure that all the cameras were still working. Obviously at the moment where we're functioning without linespeople, so I just needed to make sure all cameras were spot on, and just, I think, plug one back in and we were all right to go.

Q. I don't know exactly how to ask this, but you're so good on court with your variety, your tactics, court management. I want to ask you about just decision-making out on court in the moment. Can you break that down? How does that work? Are you sometimes much better at it? What goes through your mind in that nanosecond?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, a lot of the time it's automatic. It's what we practice. It's what we train for. We practice the patterns that I want off my racquet. When I see space or I see a certain ball, most of the time I know exactly what I want to try and do with it.

A lot of the time when there's not a lot of thought and there's clarity is when I pick the best option: I go with my gut. When I'm changing my mind and unsure of which option to take, if there are multiple, that's when I get myself tangled and get myself into trouble.

In a sense, it's really simple, go with your gut, kind of first option that I see or first option I want to try to do with that ball, I just try and execute.

Q. Can you think of any players in your career who were a problem for you in terms of decision-making or taking you out of your rhythm or giving you uncertainty in that way?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Oh, plenty. I won't tell you now but there are plenty. Every single opponent comes with different challenges, without a doubt. Some are big ball strikers, some move better, some change pace, have variety. There are multitudes of different ways you can hit a tennis ball.

I think that's what the beauty of our sport is, there is no two players the same. In each and every match you have to adapt and have to be able to tactically change and execute in a different way.

Q. You and Simona and Garbine, just as an example, have all won the natural surface slams, French and Wimbledon. All three of you are great hard court players as well. US Open and Australian Open are the ones missing. Do you have any sort of theory as to why it is that that breakthrough kind of happened for three very, very strong hard court players on the natural surfaces first?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, it's an interesting one. Obviously the occasions can make you feel different. You can't hide behind the fact that for me playing in Australia is different to what Simo or Garbine feel when they play in Australia. When they're playing in Europe it's different to how I feel when I play in Europe.

I think all in all we've won titles on hard courts, we've all won big titles on hard courts. I don't think there's anything specific to it. It's just sometimes you have to get the timing right. Things have to fall in your place. You have to get a bit of luck.

You kind of have to be able to kind of navigate your way through a two-week tournament, which is not easy. Sometimes the single-week tournaments are easy to get a bit of a flow. You play every day. You just get in this monotonous rhythm of warmup, practice, play. That same thing over and over.

But for two weeks, that's a long time. It is a very long time to stay focused, to stay specific to what you want. And the Grand Slams, where the best quality tennis players come to one event and try and beat each other. I hope for all of us we're not far off. You keep putting yourself in that position time and time again, keep showing up, having a crack, and that's kind of all you can ask.

Q. You spoke a moment ago about making split-second decisions, and how you arrive at those decisions. What impact on that decision-making does the surface have, and particularly this surface?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: It can adjust it a little bit. I think there is a little bit of preplanning going into different surfaces. Your opponent changes that, as well, depending on who I'm playing will depend on where I try and hit the ball or how I try and hit the ball a lot of the time. But that decision-making I'd like to think is monotonous and kind of automatic in a way where it's see ball, hit ball, pick your spot, and execute.

I think without complicating it too much, it's just about executing what I think is the right option at that time. It's not always the right option but going out there and trusting yourself is a big part of that.

Q. I don't think you have played Clara Tauson before, so what are your thoughts going in there? She's a young player. What are your thoughts there?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Yeah, a young player. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of her. I think that's a little bit of homework for Tyzz and I to go to the drawing board and see what she can offer. I know that this is perhaps her first year on tour. If not, she played a little bit late last year.

Yeah, we have to have a look and go in with a clear game plan and then try and execute for us, even though we haven't seen her play or come up against her or hit with her. That doesn't change our planning and preparation going into it.

Q. You like that sort of challenge, don't you?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: I like all the challenges, all different challenges that come with tennis. I think a new one, a fresh one is exciting. We go into it and hopefully we're clear as a bell, and we can just go out and there and try and execute.

Q. Following up on that, when you are going to play someone whose game you don't know, you haven't faced, will Craig ever say to you, Oh, she does this like such-and-such other player whose game you are more familiar with?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: Not so much directly coming from Tyzz. I think once we speak about a person, an opponent, we kind of go back and forth. My tendency is to find similarities in different players, whether it's ball-striking similar, the way they move, the way that they are physically, there are a million comparisons that you can make, but also in saying that, every single player is unique. And when push comes to shove, people have their own tendencies, and each and every opponent has their own way of expressing that. It's completely different.

So you can kind of find some similarities and probably more so than comparisons. "Similarity" is probably the more appropriate word where you're trying to piece together the puzzle that is your opponent.

Q. How important is it for you to start the tournament with a straight-set win?

ASHLEIGH BARTY: It's important, but it's not everything. I think all in all I felt like today I was able to find some good tennis when it mattered most. I started well, and in the end was able to play some good aggressive tennis towards the end of the match.

It's certainly nice knowing that we can reset now, practice a little bit tomorrow, and then focus on our next match.