MELBOURNE SUMMER SET

January 4, 2022

Clara Tauson

Press Conference

C. TAUSON/A. Kalinina

7-5, 6-3

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about today's match? How did you feel out there? How nervous were you as it was the first match of the season, and how would you evaluate yourself of play?

CLARA TAUSON: I was actually not really nervous today. I don't know why. I felt comfortable on court. I've had some good practice sessions the last couple of days, so I think that helped me a lot, building the confidence in my game.

I think the match was a pretty good start. She played very well. I played pretty okay, I think. I started out pretty good, and then she really came after me, and yeah, I just tried to stay as focused as I could and tried to fight for every single point because she was not missing a lot in the first set, and I just tried to find a way, and I found it pretty good, I think. Pretty happy about that.

Q. How did you feel with your 2021 season ending and it was a very solid, very strong season for you? What were the lessons that once you got to think about everything that you had learned that year, what were the lessons that you take from 2021 into 2022?

CLARA TAUSON: Definitely that I can play on a very high level for many matches, and this is my level now, I think. I think I'm a solid top-100 at least player, and I definitely wasn't at the beginning of the year.

I think I took some great experience winning and losing matches last year, and yeah, I think I've built a really good mental state on court and trying to play my game all the time and not letting the opponent play their game too much and try to take control of the points. That was definitely a lesson I had to learn going from the ITF to the WTA; you cannot let some easy points go because then you'll lose two or three games in a row, and I've really worked hard on that, and I think that's really improved a lot.

Q. At what point did it finally settle in with you that you belonged, that you were a top-100 player solidly so?

CLARA TAUSON: I think after I had a pretty rough summer on the tour, the clay season and the grass season. I took a couple weeks off to regroup. I was pretty tired. I had played a lot of tournaments, and then I came back on the U.S. swing and I played some really good matches in Chicago and got to play Ash on the biggest court in the world.

I feel I can beat some of the top-100 players even though I'm not feeling great and not playing so great, so I think I've found some solutions to that.

Q. Going into your preseason and getting into this year, in terms of goal setting, what are your ambitions for this year? What would you consider a successful season for you?

CLARA TAUSON: I mean, now I have to start defending points you can say. I have some great tournaments last year. I have to defend. I cannot think too much about that. I don't have a ranking set for myself. I think I will be playing some biggest tournaments now, and hopefully also winning some matches in them, but you never know. With my ranking I am still not seeded in the big tournaments, so I can run into everybody in the first round.

I'm just trying to play the bigger tournaments and try to win some matches there, and maybe I'll think about ranking in the middle of the season after I see how I do.

Right now ranking-wise, I don't have anything.

Q. What were you specifically working on in your preseason?

CLARA TAUSON: Ooh, definitely --

Q. Other than everything.

CLARA TAUSON: Yeah, everything, but definitely the physical. I did a lot of running and all the other kind of things I don't like to do. I worked really hard, especially in the gym for many, many hours in six or seven weeks. I feel I'm faster and I'm stronger now. Even it was my first match today, I felt like I was running pretty good and staying in the rallies.

Yeah, we worked a lot on especially the physical part.

Q. Do you feel like that is where the gap is right now? Not the gap, but the next step for you in terms of closing the gap on top 50, top 40, top 30 is the physical side of your game?

CLARA TAUSON: I think before I was pretty good physically, but I am still really -- I'm pretty tall, and I have to keep everything in place all the time. I maybe have to work a little bit harder than some of the shorter girls to keep all my movements good and all that kind of thing.

Yeah, the physical is always a really big part, but I think the gap maybe is I have to play on an even higher level for many matches in a row. I can hit that level, but it's more about staying consistent on a very, very high level.

Q. Do you feel as though seeing the players that you played alongside last year, whether it was Raducanu, Badosa, players who went on to have really strong seasons and high results, does that boost you at all? Does it make you more ambitious? Does it make you believe that your game is right there alongside to get the same results? What does their success, how does it impact you and your motivation?

CLARA TAUSON: Yeah, I mean, I can see I played with those players. I beat those kind of players right before a tournament, also.

But I think they just had their -- they were on cloud nine for the really big tournaments. I was maybe on for the smaller tournaments. You can never really know what's going to happen in a tournament, but I think they maybe just hit a really, really high level on some really, really great tournaments, and I hit them maybe in the wrong spots.

But still, I think my season was very successful even though I didn't do anything like them. But yeah, of course my motivation is pretty high knowing that I can play with those kind of players and even beat them.