BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 15, 2022

Petra Martic

Press Conference

P. MARTIC/L. Samsonova

7-6, 6-4

Q. I noticed your ranking right now is 79. It's like you've been like really solid top 30 ever since 2019 Roland Garros. For you is it like the pressure is off a little bit, you start to lower the expectations and focus on what makes you a strong player instead of thinking about that stuff?

PETRA MARTIC: I always try not to think about it, to be honest. Even when I was up there I tried to focus on my game and that's what we're doing right now. So I don't know, to be honest, today was a little bit difficult because I really wanted another quarterfinal here. So it got a little bit in my head, which made things more difficult, but overall the goal is obviously to focus on your game.

Q. Overall what would you say you are doing well this week compared to maybe or weeks in the past?

PETRA MARTIC: I think I competed well overall. I think when I started playing lower level last year I felt like my competitive side was a little bit not as good, not as sharp. Like I was losing tight matches as opposed to winning them before that.

Now I feel like even if I don't play great I can still win. I believe that and at the end I managed to do that. So that's a big thing for me.

Q. Will this help you get that feeling that you can compete through the tough matches and come out with the victories?

PETRA MARTIC: Well, I try a bit -- I'm a bit of a perfectionist so that definitely doesn't help always. I try not to judge myself for the mistakes. I think in my third round against Raducanu that was the big thing. I think that's what made the big difference in the end. I just let go of all the mistakes and disappointment. I just tried to compete and fight until the end and, yeah, that's what definitely helps.

Q. Are you still with Michael Geserer?

PETRA MARTIC: Yes.

Q. Can you talk about what that partnership has been like? Was it since the US Open last year?

PETRA MARTIC: Yeah. We started that U.S. swing. We met up and started working together. It's going well. I feel like last year I had some issues. It was hard to find some consistency to really work and change certain things I've been wanting to change.

And then from the pre-season I felt like we did some great things together. It didn't show in Australia. I was still not quite there. And then I feel like from St. Petersburg on my game kind of started falling together and it started to make sense and I think it's really showing now.

Q. Is there one or two things you could tell me that you especially like about working with him specifically?

PETRA MARTIC: He's a great coach. First of all, he's really positive. No matter how I play, no matter how I feel, he's always so positive. Even when I think like, oh, my God, he's really going to be so disappointed.

And he's very determined and obviously just a great coach. The way he sees the game, the way he prepares, practices and matches, is just, you have a clear head. You have a clear vision. And you can just work on those things. He really simplifies things and that's really important for a player like me.

Q. With Francesca on the clay, is that still a thing that you might revisit and use her wisdom for that surface later in the season or do you think you'll not be spending any time with her?

PETRA MARTIC: No. Now I'm with Michael full-time and I think we're doing a good job and I don't see a reason to bring anyone else in right now.

Q. To back up, the two wins you already got over top-20 seeds and to get this one, what does it mean for you? It's the first quarterfinal at this level on a hard court since I think Wuhan a few years ago.

PETRA MARTIC: Yeah, could be. It's been a couple years. It's big. I think I felt the nerves a bit more today, especially that in the past I got stopped in the fourth round. So those are never easy for me to play. It got in my head a little bit in the first set, but I managed to fight through that and just toughen it out in the end.

Q. You feel like your game is kind of clicking together and flowing and you're seeing it very well. What does that mean to you? Just the instinctual patterns that you want to play and the shots that you want to play are coming naturally, is it execution more, like where's the balance fall there?

PETRA MARTIC: It's decision making, what to play when. That's one thing that we worked a lot. Obviously to be more predictable, more dangerous, trust your own game and skills more as opposed to focusing on your opponent and what they're going to do.

Because, with my game, which I like to play all the shots and use them all, sometimes I fall into reacting rather than creating points. So that's one thing that we started shifting couple months back and I think it's working good.

Q. In terms of how you're feeling about making the quarterfinals and getting the wins that you have this tournament, do you feel as though, are you feeling like head in the clouds, this is amazing, I'm in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells again after a few years or are you feeling pretty even keeled about what you've done so far here?

PETRA MARTIC: I don't know. I feel a little bit empty right now to be honest. Like I said, it's been awhile since I played on a high level and went deep into a tournament, so emotionally I feel a little bit drained at the moment. I just want to try to recover and prepare as good as I can for the quarterfinals.

The second round for me was really big emotionally also to beat someone on that level, like that was my first win, and then I feel like it just started rolling after that, like it gave me confidence like, Okay, I can do it, I'm there again, so let's just, you know, keep doing the same thing.

And I feel like that round was pretty important for me and then, yeah, things started rolling and now I just want to recover. (Laughing).

Q. Jen Brady benefited from an off-season with Michael Geserer and I wonder for you if you could maybe enlighten us and tell me what's special about working with him in the off-season and do you think it really has made a big difference for you as well?

PETRA MARTIC: I think you just get the time needed. You are not, unless you're injured, like you have all the time in the world to work on the things that you normally don't do if you start like we started, whatever, August. Then you have to prepare for matches, you cannot really work on your game and changing the things.

So I think when we started working I wasn't even aware of all the things that we were going to change (laughing.) So in the end it turned out to be a lot of them. Obviously those things take time, but like I said, it didn't work out in January, it took a bit longer.

And to be honest I still feel like there's so much room to improve and to just be aware of certain things that I need to be doing. So I think I can only be going up from now on.