AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 23, 2022

David Witt

Press Conference

Q. What is it about Melbourne that brings out the best in Jess?

DAVID WITT: Well, she likes playing in the heat, you know, being from Florida.

Last year she started playing some excellent ball, and coming back this year she was excited to come back and play. It's a different year for her because last year she did so well, and this year it seems like she was the hunter last year, and now she's kind of the hunted. She's still playing great ball.

First few tournaments she lost first round but played very well, and I just told her don't get discouraged because she played great. It was good to get the first round win year, and once you get that win under your belt, you kind of just build confidence.

Q. Her results when she got back to hard courts last year, clearly to be able to maintain, to rebound that consistency, it's something you must be very happy with.

DAVID WITT: Oh, yeah. We were both happy with the consistency as the tough thing going -- there's so many weeks of good players and you just don't know what you're going to get every week. You've got to bring it every match because the depth in the women's game right now is really strong. So the consistency was very good.

Q. To get Barty, that would be a formidable opponent, wouldn't it?

DAVID WITT: Yeah, she's happy to move on, and she's going to be -- obviously if she plays Barty, it'll be great. You've got to beat the best to be the best, so Ash is definitely the best right now. She's got a tough match. Amanda played unbelievable that last match to beat Osaka.

We're going to tune in and watch that and see how that match goes, but she would love to play either one on the big stage, yeah.

Q. When you joined Jessica -- have you been working together three years now?

DAVID WITT: About two and a half.

Q. What were your impressions like beforehand, and what's impressed you in the 20 or 30 or so months you've been together?

DAVID WITT: Sure. She works extremely hard on and off the court. I think when we started, it was just to get that belief in her, that she can beat -- started top 50, top 40, top 10, and I think once she started -- obviously we worked on a lot of things through the pandemic and when it was off different things in her game. I think once you start winning, confidence is everything, and once she started getting a few wins under your belt, I think she really felt like I belong here, and I think that's taken her a long way.

Q. Can I ask you about this fine generation of American women that are coming through. Madison has had a really good result; obviously Amanda is coming through. What are you seeing there?

DAVID WITT: I think they all feed off of each other. They're all friends. They kind of see one doing well, they want to do well. They practice, they hit with each other. Back in Florida there's several that live in that south Florida area and they hit with each other.

I think when you see one doing well, they all kind of say, well, that can be me, and it kind of pushes them to strive to do better.

Q. One more on Ash: Her reign at No. 1, have you seen her add to her game or does she continue to take her game to another level?

DAVID WITT: Yeah, she has so many different weapons, the slice backhand. She's just super smart on the court. Her serve is probably one of the most underrated -- her serve is really good. Whether she has 10 aces or no aces, she moves it around like unbelievable.

Her coming in, she has an all-purpose game where she can come in, volley, the slice. She's very smart on the court on her shot selection.

Q. I was curious, in talking with Jessie and talking about her ambitions or what she wants to do, she talks a little bit differently than a lot of players. It's never like, I want to be No. 1 or I want to win a slam, which isn't to say she doesn't want those things, but that's not what comes out of her mouth first. I'm curious for you in your work with her how you kind of set or rate her ambition and how she goes about improving on the tour, getting these results, setting goals, things like that? What drives her? What pushes her?

DAVID WITT: Well, I'll say she does want to win a slam, and yes, those goals are definitely -- she sets some high goals. I think over the last two years she's probably had to set new goals with achieving different levels.

It went from not being into 500 tournaments and 1000s and stuff like that to getting into those, and then now she's seeded in them, and then now seeded in Grand Slams, which helps, so you don't have to play some of the best players in the world the first, second rounds.

She's into a lot of different things. She loves sports, not just tennis. She's just an easy person to get along with away from the court. She loves golf, this, that.

I think away from the court she tries to leave it at the court. Even though we do talk about tennis a lot at tournaments, watching matches and stuff, I think that's part of the learning process, I think, is we always talk about matches and strategy and how would we play this person.

I think that helps because then when you play them -- we have some debates here and there, which is good. Communication is a good thing.

Q. Just in terms of the potential next matchup, whether it's Ash or it's Amanda, one of the storylines of today in particular seems to be speed of the court and how quick the courts were playing, particularly today with the heat. I'm curious for you, is that something that you look at when you start to game plan these matches, and if you were to play Ash, you want a night match or a day match and if you were to play Amanda, do you want a night match or a day match?

DAVID WITT: Well, the speed of the court is huge. I think today it helped Jessica a lot. They are a little quick this year. They're not a ton quicker than last year. I think it's a good speed for Jessica.

Amanda is hitting the ball unbelievable that match she played with -- it was high-quality tennis from both Naomi and Amanda.

I think Ash tries to bait you into kind of going for shots maybe that you shouldn't go for, and I think a lot more people have unforced errors against her because she's very smart at how she plays. Definitely tonight will be good to see two different game styles because Amanda can really hit the ball and overpower people, and Ash is a smarter player.

I don't think Jessica really minds either one. We'll adjust to whoever she plays.

Q. If you were to describe what makes her a special player, what would be at the top of your list?

DAVID WITT: It's how she hits the ball, how she drives through the ball. I don't think a lot of players hit with the type of ball she hits where she drives through the court. A lot of players you'll see hit topspin or maybe when they try to hit it they don't hit through the court as much as she does.

I think that's one thing; it's hard to play her because she's driving the ball deep in the court. And then the other things we've worked on is a lot of defense, not just offense, playing defense, and that's been a big thing in her matches, staying in points, the slice backhand, the defensive lobs to stay in points, and then obviously we're working on the serve every day a lot.