MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 3, 2022

Sara Sorribes Tormo

Press Conference

S. SORRIBES TORMO/D. Kasatkina

6-4, 1-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Spanish.

Q. First of all, congratulations for the victory, for this quarterfinals. How do you feel? Can you talk to us a little bit about the match?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Well, thank you. I feel really happy. I'm very, very happy. I think that it's been one of the most hard matches tactically speaking that I played, because as I said yesterday, we have very similar tennis, both of us.

We tried to look at each other's weak points, and I think that from my side and how I understand it, tennistically it's been a very nice match and I have been able to enjoy the match. Of course I have suffered, but I have enjoyed it a lot in many moments, so I am very happy.

Q. The other day you were saying that you pretend to enjoy more the matches than checking the statistics, rankings, that you want to improve day by day. I want to ask you with this run, do you feel you can do something very well here in Madrid?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: No, no, I would love to say yes and have a better headline, but I'm sorry, no, I finished the match and then I said, Oh, great. Now I have a doubles match so I can enjoy playing with my teammate. That's what I'm thinking.

I never think that way, the way you're say saying. I like to go day after day. I just live life day after day, and I try to be the same in the tennis court. I'm just very happy about what is happening this week, and I'm really happy, as I said.

Q. To win against Osaka like you did in the Fed Cup, do you think that you are valued? Because sometimes in the press conference when you are famous, you are a little bit... Apart from Garbine and Badosa, do you feel you are supported? Do you feel loved? How do you see this?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Well, well, I'm happy with what I have. I think that each one of us needs something different, and I need very little. I just need to be happy, to have my family around, my relatives around. I feel very privileged and very fortunate to do what I do every single day. So it's not much more that I am worried about.

If people talk about me, don't talk about me, support me or not, I just go out there on the court, I compete, and I'm happy with that. Whatever comes, thank you, but, you know, as I said, I'm happy.

Q. Perhaps we, the press, don't give you all the value that you deserve because of what you do on the court, but I'm sure that in the locker rooms, many tennis players are happy to see how well you are doing because they know how tough it is. They know you're always suffering, you play the longest matches, fight every single ball. What does that say that other players are happy that you have made it to the quarterfinals?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Tell the truth, have you been spying on me with the physio? Because I just said that. You were spying me in the physio room, right (smiling)?

What you are saying really excites me. I'm just really, really excited and I just spoke about that with Blanca, with my physio, that I'm happy that other players text me and feel happy for me, because at the end, it's true that on the court you try to be very competitive.

I always try to give my maximum respect to my rival. I admire a lot of players and learned from all of them. You can always learn things. Even they come to me and they say that they are happy about me, players that have been for a long time, for example, injured. The other day Jen Brady text me and she said that she was really happy for me, and I text her back, "fucking animal," and we were talking about a lot of things, and she said that she was really happy about me, and it make me feel really proud.

Q. Apart from tennis, I want to know, how are you sleeping these days? And if I can know the name of your grandfather, what is he saying these days?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Well, sleeping, I'm not sleeping much at night. I tried to recover, tried to rest, but it's true that it was siesta before I eat, siesta after eating, because I don't imagine to sleep long hours. It is what it is. It's normal we are in a competition. We all have a lot of tension.

My grandfather, he's called Pepe. Today I said if he's going home, because I thought that he was leaving yesterday. I said, Do you have clothes to stay? He said, No, but here I can buy more clothes.

That's all he says. I hope he stays many more days with me and that he keeps enjoying it.

Q. What about the audience? Each match we see that it's more, I see that you are enjoying a lot the tournament. What do you feel?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Yeah, yeah, as I said, I am enjoying it a lot. First day I said that when I lost the second set I was a little bit down because I saw that she was playing better than me and I was not able to find my game.

I just stopped, and I looked at all the champions of the court, and I remembered nearly all of them. I said that you're here, it's amazing you're here being able to enjoy this in this court.

From then onwards I felt a great connection with the court, with the people. Today I was just astonished of the amount of people that were there supporting me. So it's been incredible, a great experience, and I'm going to take it with me forever.

Q. Help us to write a headline, because I'm from radio, but if they title "The Triumph of," what would you say, "The Triumph of" -- something?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: "The Triumph of Sara Sorribes Tormo" is not a good headline, right? The triumph of or victory of...

Q. (Off mic.)

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Okay, I will think about the headline. If it's after winning tomorrow, I will think about it.

Q. Regarding your grandfather Pepe, you will pay for his clothes with your prize money?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Of course, of course. To my grandfather I will pay him everything. He's always looking after us. Yes, I will pay him everything.

Q. I'm going to put, "Still Dreaming in Madrid." I wanted to ask, are you going to watch Villareal? They play tonight.

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Yes, yes, I expect the team to win. I wish it would be great, I always say, but I cried a lot with the penalty of Riquelme.

But I hope that today we have something good for Villareal, because I wish, I wish, I don't know if I'm going to be able to watch it because I don't know when I'm going to play my doubles because it's raining out there. But if it's possible, I will watch if, but hopefully they will be lucky and they will win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. You have had a tough draw, a very tough draw. Is that something even if it's that tough, is that something you feel you can appreciate and perhaps brings the best out of you?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: First of all, I think all the players are really good, so all the draws are very tough. It's very difficult to win matches.

But what I'm most proud of is that they are different types of players. Pavlyuchenkova is a bit more like Osaka but she also plays. Osaka hits very hard. And today she's totally different. What I really feel is that she does same as me but she does much better, because she stays more time in the top 30, top 50, top 20. I was a bit disturbed because I'm like, she's better variation of what I try to do.

I'm super happy with the way I played, because I think I managed to go a bit more to the net, to be more aggressive. At the same time, to stay calm.

What can I say? I'm super happy.

Q. You're very humble when you talk about other players. You almost always say, Oh, that player is better than me. How do you balance that mentality of being, you know, realistic maybe about your game versus another player's game while still competing as hard as you possibly can to win the match?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Yeah, good question. It's something that you try to change when you get into the court. For me it's not good when you think outside of the court that you are going to win or that you are doing something better than them, because I don't really think it's true.

You can be confident in what you do, you can be confident in what your moment is, and if you are winning matches or not winning matches, but when you get into the court, it's totally different.

You have to play the match. You have to stay in every single moment. You have to try to see when you are into the court what you have to do, what you can do.

So that's the way I try to do it. Even if I think they are better, I'll try to find something. Of course always with respect, but I try to find these things inside of the court.

Q. With respect to when you do take the court, players don't like to play you. It's not fun for them. It's difficult. Do you take pride in that reputation in the locker room?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: That's something Flipkens, my doubles partner, is always telling to me, and I don't believe it. So now she's telling me, Are you going to believe any day, or what are you going to do?

The most important thing is that of course I feel my game is difficult for them because not many players, for example, Kasatkina is more or less same, but not many players are playing this type of game. But what I really feel is I have to improve.

I can play my game, but at the beginning of the match of some points I need to be there. I need to play more or less same as them, and then try to do my game. But first of all I have to play like them. I can't start with my game, the match.

So it's something you have to figure out. But Flipkens is always telling me, and, yeah, that's nice.

Q. You're only the fourth Spanish woman to make the quarterfinals. What does it mean to join that small group of people who have accomplished this?

SARA SORRIBES TORMO: Yeah, it's super nice. Also, Carla was in my house before I came to this tournament. She came to see Villareal and to stay a few days with me. She told me, You have to arrive to day 4 in Madrid because I'm coming day 4.

Every day she's telling me, Yeah, less days, less days, and today when I finished the match, I told her, Yeah, come, please. She's saying, Yeah, I'm arriving, I'm arriving.

That's very nice for me, as well.