BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 15, 2022

Paula Badosa

Press Conference

P. BADOSA/L. Fernandez

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Nine wins in a row, back in the quarterfinals. Must be in a pretty good mood right now.

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, very happy. I think I'm playing every day better and better. I'm feeling my tennis is getting higher, the level. I'm very happy about today and the win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Did you feel the advantage you would have today would be your serve and more power with your groundstrokes?

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah. I knew that would be the key. I knew she was going to make me move and not make me hit like stop, you know, because I was going to be aggressive and not letting her be moving me a lot.

Yeah, the key was a little bit the serve, I think, and to push her when she was serving. In the important moments, in the key moments, I served well and went for it very good.

Q. Last night you told the crowd you wanted to be remembered as a fighter. Have you always felt that way? How have you progressed over the years?

PAULA BADOSA: No, I wasn't like that. Always in some interviews they already asked me that. I was very bad mentally. I wasn't a fighter. Like maybe two years ago I was struggling a lot. I don't know, I don't remember exactly, but I think it was two and a half years ago I was top hundred, so it was very fast.

Since then I change a little bit. It was like a goal for me personally and a challenge that I did myself, to fight every point no matter what, no matter my feelings in the match.

I'm very happy because I think I'm doing it every match, or that's what I try.

Q. Is there a match that stands out in your mind two and a half years ago that was a match that you felt you didn't fight, you were disappointed?

PAULA BADOSA: Not only one. A lot. I wish it would be one (smiling). Yeah, no, a lot of them.

It was not because I didn't like want to win or I didn't want to fight. I wanted, but I was so frustrated that I couldn't control my emotions. I'm very emotional, as you could see. I always give it all on court. Sometimes I get very angry, but I try to stay positive.

It was the other way two years ago. I was getting very negative very soon. That is what was making me not fighting. I changed. I said, No matter what, I start to have a positive language.

That's a little bit the big change on myself, yeah.

Q. Who is the adorable girl in your box?

PAULA BADOSA: No, it's my coach's daughter. I know maybe you are going to ask if she my sister or something. Everyone says it.

Q. Are you happy to have gone through that? Do you think it's made you stronger now for having had to fight through it or do you think it took years off your life?

PAULA BADOSA: I think the second one. It took me years. I was suffering. I was suffering a lot. I wasn't lucky maybe with people I had by my side in that moment, as well.

It was a lot of things were not going well in that moment. I don't know. I tried to think positive and I want to think that maybe that helped me to be the person that I am now. I don't know if it's true or not, but I want to think like that. I think that maybe made me stronger. I want to think like that. Let's not think negative.

Q. How do you pick the people now that you want around you? How do you balance positivity with honest feedback?

PAULA BADOSA: A little bit like that. I think experience helped me on that. Now I think I have the perfect team, the perfect people by my side. I just see it how they treat me, how they treat me as well when the things are not going well. That's where I most see the people, how they are.

Yeah, like that, I think I have an amazing coach, an amazing team by my side. They support me no matter what. That's very important for me in this tough sport.

Q. It's more than two years since you last played her. She's been in the US Open final. Did you see anything different in her game?

PAULA BADOSA: Who?

Q. Leylah.

PAULA BADOSA: Two years? It was last year.

Q. No, when you played her.

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, I remember that match. It's pretty funny because it was first round quallies. I think I was 90 in the world and she was 140 or something. I didn't know her. I knew she was a very good junior.

We played each other. It was a very, very tough match. I remember going after to say that she was going to be top hundred very soon because I really liked how she played, very smart player.

What most impact me in that moment is next day after she lost against me, the next day 7 a.m. she was practicing. I was like, Wow. Very, very intense player. Very hard worker. I thought she's going to be a very, very good player. As you can see, she's already top 20 with 19 years old. That's amazing.

Q. What's most impressive about her game now?

PAULA BADOSA: I think she's very smart. Very intense. Very good timing. I think she has an amazing timing, how she takes the ball very soon. She opens angles. So she does a little bit of everything. She's lefty, so sometimes that's uncomfortable for us.

Yes, she has a very good game. The thing I like most about Leylah, she has the same attitude no matter what. That's very important if you want to be a very good player.

Q. Would you say tonight is a good example of some of the stuff you were talking about?

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, I really was trying to stay composed no matter what. I knew it could go either way. We were both playing very good match. We were both playing aggressive.

I think the first one that was being aggressive got more chances. I think it was very important the serve, as I said before.

Yeah, I think in the key, important moments I played a little bit better.

Q. How pleased are you with how you've handled the tournament so far? Do you attribute how you handled it by just doing what you always do at tournaments, keeping your routines, or have you made changes?

PAULA BADOSA: No, I didn't make any changes. To be honest, it was tough for me when I came here the first week. I was trying to adapt. I was playing well, but it was tough for me mentally because I had a lot of expectations. I didn't play well in Dubai and Doha. I had very bad feelings there. It was tough here.

I think my team did a very good job because it was tough, I know, to handle me the first days. I'm very happy that I got through it. As I said, it's very important in my case to fight.

I think the first match you saw my reaction when I won first round. People maybe could be asking why is she doing that, did she won the tournament. But for me was like winning the tournament. Was very important.

Sometimes you don't know what people is going through. In that case, that was my case. I'm really, really happy, you can imagine, to be in quarterfinals.

Q. Do you have any particular rituals here, restaurants that you have to go to, things you need to eat?

PAULA BADOSA: This year I'm lucky that I'm staying in a house, so my coach and my team are cooking for me because I'm a very bad cooker. But I clean, so...

We're going now to the supermarket and we are buying things that we like. We're doing a Spanish tortilla. I don't know if you know it. It's a very good one. That's a little bit my routines.

Just tomorrow I have day off so I will try to rest, play a little bit, but most important to rest and enjoy the day. It's a day off and I have quarterfinals. What else can I ask?